Edmonton community leader nominated for prestigious award

Cory Nicotine didn't know anything about politics when he was living on the street as a teenager.

Now he's on the verge of winning a national award for getting so many youth to care about the big issues across the country.

Along with only a handful of others in Canada, he's on the short list for the prestigious Everyday Political Citizen award, in the age category of 18 to 29 years of age. The award is given out by Toronto-based Samara, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy group dedicated to citizen engagement and participation.

Although he's gone from being homeless to becoming a leader in his community, he remains modest.

"It's an honour; it's good to be highlighted like that, but I don't really like the attention," said Nicotine, who grew up on Saddle Lake Cree Nation.

Nicotine's humility is a key tool for the 26-year-old when he mentors Edmonton's homeless and high-risk youth at the inner-city agency iHuman.

"He's lived what a lot of youth live through," said Albert Favel, 19. Favel said Nicotine commands instant respect with youth.

"It's easy for a youth like myself to relate to him because we've lived through that."

Found his calling working with youth

Working alongside youth at the non-profit organization famous for its arts-based programming helped Nicotine find his calling.

"They almost looked inspired to do better because I was doing OK."

Doing OK is an understatement. Nicotine went to Africa with Canada's World Youth Leaders in Action, a trip that took him to Tanzania in 2012 where he was forced to see things from a different point of view. While there he encountered what he calls "white privilege," a feeling of being treated better than others, and it didn't sit well with him.

"I was treated with more respect . . . because of my colour, and it felt weird because I didn't like it. I just wanted to be the same as everybody else."

He started to learn a bit of Swahili, joking he eventually picked up more of that language than Cree.

He made friends easily and liked what he saw as a more simple approach to life, one in which people were talking to each other instead of about each other.

Influenced by what he learned in Africa, Nicotine set up "Knowledge is Powwow" on his return to Canada, a project that would bring together youth from all backgrounds to talk about things they cared about.

Seeing so many young people had questions about who makes all the big decisions in Edmonton, he invited some of those running for city council to iHuman to take questions directly.

It was another eye-opener for the youth.

Up close and personal with politicians

"We see them on TV and hear them on the radio, but we don't see them in real life," Nicotine said.

Talking to candidates face to face helped the young people become more aware of issues about which they had known very little beforehand.

"Councillors came and youth talked to them and felt like they met them. And it engaged more youth to go and vote, and before they didn't know where to vote," Nicotine said.

It's Nicotine`s commitment to those around him that led iHuman social worker and program manager Brianna Olson to nominate him for the award.

"He's getting youth engaged in political action and social justice issues, and a lot of it he does on his own time and because he's passionate about it. So I think he's a really good example to indigenous youth and to anybody in general," Olson said.

Nicotine will find out next week if he's chosen as the winner when CBC personality Rick Mercer makes the announcement in Toronto.

But whether he wins or not, he's already planning his next project, one he hopes will remove any fears about refugees coming to Canada in big numbers.

"What was getting me mad was seeing what was happening in the media about Muslim people — it was getting me mad."

He's thinking of throwing a big potluck dinner to bring people together from different cultures, and maybe use comedy as a way to build understanding.

"Have comedians there to break down stereotypes — different comedians, native and Muslim."

gareth.hampshire@cbc.ca

@cbcgareth