Canada has bestowed honorary citizenship on someone for only the sixth, and the recipient - Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai - is the youngest ever person to receive the honor.

Appearing in Ottawa, the 19-year old global advocate for women's rights and education said she was "humbled" by the gift from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and called upon the Canadian government to use its influence to help fund education for girls worldwide, including refugees.

Trudeau praised Malala for her advocacy, calling her "the newest and possibly bravest citizen of Canada", while Ms. Yousafzai lauded Canada's embrace of refugees.  The Government of Canada resettled more than 25,000 refugees from the Syrian Civil war between 4 November 2015 and 29 February 2016.

Malala Yousafzai came to international prominence in 2011 when she was shot in the head by the Taliban for defying their ban on girls attending school in her native Pakistan.  Disgusted by the cowardice of the Taliban, much of the world gave their moral support to the family and she as airlifted to the UK for medical treatment.  She recovered quickly and the family resettled in Birmingham so Malala could continue her education while taking advantage of her new international platform for advocacy.

Canada had actually tried to give honorary citizenship to Yousafzai before, but the ceremony had to be abandoned when a gunman claiming Islamist motives attack Parliament and killed a guard.  "The man who attacked Parliament Hill called himself a Muslim," she said of that day in October 2014.  "But he did not share my faith."

The only other five people ever to receive Honorary Canadian Citizenship are Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, religious leader Aga Khan, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.