Our final news round-up of the week looks at the use of poetry between the members of Parliament in Ottawa in what appears to be something of an annual tradition. We also bring you an article about an 8-year-old poet who is not afraid to tell Donald Trump to stop, and finally the statues of poets that celebrate 25 years of ties between China and the Ukraine.

Poetry in Parliament

In Ottawa, the weapon of choice between Members of the Parliament as we enter the holiday season is poetry. Before this week’s question time on Wednesday there was a exchange of heated holiday poems in the House of Commons.

This is not a new occurrence, Rodger Cuzner, the Liberal MP delivers an annual rendition of

and has done so for several years.

This year he was joined by Kerry Diotte; the Conservative MP started the proceedings with a rendition of “Jingle Bells” that included many lines that were tweaked to make jibes at his opponents. Marak Strahl, another Conservative MP offered up a Christmas poem which alluded to the Liberal’s cash for access fundraisers amongst other things

It wasn’t just the policies of the opposition that were taken a shot at via poetry, there were also jibes levelled at Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. Cuzner then rounded up the pre-question period poetry by including Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the NDP in his poetry. Finally, with the poetry interlude over the MP’s returned to their normal discussions.

Please, Stop Tweeting Mr Trump

This is the plea of Christian Alvarado an 8-year-old member of a youth spoken word Program. Christian, who is from D.C. was talking part in a live program on News4 on Thursday morning, which involved reading his poem out loud.

The poem entitled

begged Donald Trump to stop tweeting and to stop teasing America.

Christian then repeated his poem in Spanish. Uniyah Campbell, who is 10 years old and attends the same school as Christian joined him on the program to perform her poem “Bravery”. Last month both children performed at the 20^th annual poetry slam held at DC Scores.

Poets in Sculpture Form – A Celebration of Ties Between Two Countries

Thursday 14^th December marked the 25^th anniversary of the forging of political ties between China and the Ukraine. The occasion was marked with the unveiling of a sculpture in central Kiev. The sculpture which depicts two poets Du Fu, a legendary Tang Dynasty poet and Taras Shevchenko a Ukrainian poet is titled “Gates of the Soul” and was created by Wu Weishan, a Chinese sculptor and will sit in the grounds of the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University.

The statues were met with great enthusiasm by the students of the university and political leaders of both countries as a strengthening of the ties that exist between them.