It remains to be seen

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 29, 2010 at 1:53 PM - 18 Comments

Glen Pearson considers the weekend.

I’ve already spoken to some of my MP colleagues who were there in Montreal and I detect a bit more authenticity in their voice. The speeches galvanized them; the public participation alerted them; and Michael Ignatieff’s speech at the conclusion called on them to put the trite and political things aside and fight for issues that truly matter.  But that was in Montreal, not Ottawa, and it remains to be seen if the Liberal party can enact what they discovered about themselves this weekend and keep it alive in that most partisan and skeptical of all political spaces. Yet for one brief three-day period we witnessed the enemy, and it was us. Perhaps the true genius of it all was that we accepted all that criticism in good spirit, looked inward at our own shortcomings, and came out of it a little wiser as to our faults as public servants. The truth set us free in Montreal; now we’ll see how it does in Parliament.

'That the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence'

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 168 Comments

As posted by Carolyn Bennett, here is the text of the motion the Liberals plan to present on Tuesday.

That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions, must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with the policy of previous Liberal and Conservative governments and all other G8 governments last year in L’Aquila, Italy;

that the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths; and

that the Canadian government should refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States which made humanitarian assistance conditional upon a ‘global gag rule’ that required all non-governmental organizations receiving federal funding to refrain from promoting medically-sound family planning.

Here, for the sake of argument, is the latest post on this subject from Glen Pearson.

More human

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 12:39 PM - 3 Comments

In light of Parliament’s proroguing and subsequent rescheduling, with a plea from Liberal MP Michelle Simon in mind, Glen Pearson suggests a delegation of MPs to show support for the Paralympics.

So, in light of Michelle’s leadership, here’s my request to the Prime Minister. At the opening ceremony today you stated just how important these upcoming games are and how vital it is that the athletes know we are with them.  Vanoc president John Furlong stated that these upcoming games will be different because they will be more “human,” and who would deny it?  So Mr. Harper, let’s select two MPs from each party to travel as a delegation to show that we mean what you said.

Unlike the torch festivities from the historic Olympic Games, the paralympic flame is lit initially in Ottawa, right in front of Parliament, and then carried to the venues in British Columbia.  We started something special in Ottawa today, sir, right under the shadow of the Peace Tower.  Let’s make peace today, Prime Minister, and for the next ten days let’s permit our House leaders to work out a pairing arrangement so that we too in Parliament can show our own humanity.

Mitchel Raphael on senator Frum, princess Di’s lawyer and new lyrics for ‘o canada’

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, February 26, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 19 Comments

A Senator’s busy retirement

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Tory Sen. Linda Frum held a book launch in her home for Anthony Julius’s new book Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England. Julius, a lawyer and professor, famously represented Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce from Prince Charles. Diana knew Julius because he had helped her sue a newspaper after its photographer invaded her privacy by snapping photos of her working out.

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

When Diana asked Julius to represent her for her divorce, he had never done that kind of legal work: “This would be my first divorce,” he told her. Diana quickly said, “It will be mine, too,” and said they would figure it out together. Attendees at the book launch included Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and recently retired senator Jerry Grafstein, who is part of a group of investors interested in buying the National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette, and who will soon launch the Wellington Street Post, an online paper named after the famous street that runs in front of Parliament Hill. The website plans to cover politics from a federal perspective.

Bev Oda’s hair fascinates

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

Three years ago, Liberal MP Glen Pearson, known for his humanitarian work in Sudan, asked the government for aid for Sudan, and $3 million was approved. The money went to such projects as women’s centres that helped on the educational and micro-enterprise front. When Pearson was in Sudan this year, he took with him pictures of International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda to show the Sudanese the minister who had approved the funds. They were surprised to learn it was a woman who had approved the money, and also that she was not white. But the most fascinating thing for them was Oda’s short blunt haircut. Sudanese women are known for their elaborate hairstyles.

Continue…

Personally, I blame myself

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 12, 2010 at 10:50 AM - 39 Comments

During last week’s chat, someone asked if I thought the public was, at least in part, to blame for the current state of our politics. My response was essentially “sure.” A couple days later, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg harangued the America public. And now here is Glen Pearson, quoting Aristotle and referencing Avatar.

Nobody talks like this anymore because of an abiding mutual contempt: citizens no longer trust their government, and politicians don’t trust citizens. The way we have chosen to deal with this is by creating illusions. Citizens claim to be concerned about their national political fate but then in the end don’t vote. Politicians tell people that their opinion matters but then often act as though it is their party, not the citizens, that is the ultimate arbitrator of their actions…

The last time I wrote on this subject, virtually all the comments agreed with me about politicians and then proceeded to say it has nothing to do with citizens. Well, that’s just not good enough. We are failing at both ends of the democratic exchange. We send our avatars out onto the playing field, while deep inside we know we should be doing better ourselves. Democracy awaits, but it won’t be healed by proportional representation, first-past-the post, or blind party loyalty. It will be bettered when we start speaking truth to ourselves.

The only protest that counts

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 25, 2010 at 9:42 AM - 17 Comments

Glen Pearson arrives at the crux of the matter.

Perhaps we should shift things around a bit.  How would it look if average citizens followed the lead of many of those at the rallies yesterday and actually got back to work, engaging in dialogue and ultimately voting their consciences in significant enough numbers to change the channel and undo the skepticism of our age?  That would be a marvelous thing – politicians and citizens in serious conversation.  It would have to be significant though.  Last election only 59% of Canadians voted – an all time low.  Will the PM’s caustic prorogation of Parliament be enough to turn the tide?

… On Saturday we saw Parliament subtly on the move.  Only the dedicated actions of more citizens voting their consciences for their party of choice will determine if that journey continues.

Nation building

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 4:54 PM - 20 Comments

Freshly returned from Africa, Glen Pearson writes of Haiti.

Haiti presently suffers from uncontrolled migration, deep poverty, hunger, high violence, drug trafficking and the troubling reality of environmental degradation. In other words, its future hangs in a precarious balance. Businesses and corporations are always reticent to invest in infrastructure, yet that is what Haiti requires now more than anything – a functional education system, adequate health facilities, effective courts, earthquake-proof structures, accountable government, etc. Until such things are in place, investment will merely be the playground of the elites.

The truth is, Haiti is where much of Africa was two decades ago. Only now are we beginning to comprehend that the secret to Africa’s recent success hasn’t so much been corporate investment but effective development measures over the long haul. Build the roads, the ports, the hospitals, sanitation systems, schools, universities, women’s literacy, courts, etc. and the rest will naturally follow: businesses benefit from such staples and will add to them. But more importantly, Haitians are bettered by such investment. Unless such development measures are resourced adequately, the people of Haiti will never own anything, but be pawns in a world of the elites, much as Cuba was 70 years ago.

Mitchel Raphael on Paul Martin’s huge gift and why Martha is smarter than Justin

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:40 PM - 18 Comments

Battle of the IQs
In late January, politicians from different levels of government will appear on CBC’s Test the Nation, including Liberal MPs Justin Trudeau and Martha Hall Findlay. The two had to fill out forms for the show; Hall Findlay had hers returned because she had neglected to provide her IQ. She asked the organizers if Trudeau provided his, and they said yes. So in the IQ box she noted “five per cent higher than Justin Trudeau.”

Olivia lightens Jack’s load
NDP MP Olivia Chow bought her husband, NDP Leader Jack Layton, a Kindle for Christmas. Chow was inspired when she saw the device being used by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Layton was lugging piles of books around with him so Chow thought this would be a great way to lighten his load. Chow, meanwhile, has no plans to get one herself. She prefers to read books the old-fashioned way. Also on the technology front, Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant got his very first iPod from his husband, Marco Fiola. The MP, who as a United Church minister spent 24 Christmases at the pulpit, is happy he now gets to go home for the holidays to his parents’ place in Sault Ste. Marie.

May feels bad about the epiphany party
This Christmas was the first time Green Leader Elizabeth May wasn’t home. She decided after attending the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen that she would stay in Europe for a holiday with her daughter. The trip started off with a buzz: May says the plane she took from London to Copenhagen also had Jane Goodall aboard. May saw many friends in Copenhagen, “but it was like a family reunion on the Titanic.” The conference was a nightmare in terms of waiting. In one line she found herself next to former MP Bill Blaikie, now Manitoba’s minister of conservation, whose duties include dealing with climate change and recycling. She said the Danish army took pity on them and handed them coffee and tea through the fence because it was so cold. May spoke at a University of Toronto event in Copenhagen to launch sustainability books. She was joined by the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Atleo and Bianca Jagger, who is a force behind the 350.org climate-change movement. May got accreditation to the conference through the European Green Party but so many people were accredited that few could even get into the main building. Back home, another disappointment for May: she wouldn’t be able to host her famous annual Epiphany party on Jan. 6. She told Capital Diary she hoped anybody who used to show up for the event at her Ottawa home and wouldn’t know she no longer lives there would have seen the “for sale” sign (yup, the house is still for sale) and realize the party wasn’t on. May was unable to organize the party in her new B.C. home because she was told she would have to be in court that day. She and the Green party are being sued by John Shavluk, who was dropped as a Green candidate after comments that could be construed as anti-Semitic came to light.

Xmas citizenship
Liberal MP Glen Pearson is in Sudan this month for groundbreaking ceremonies for two high schools for which he helped raise funds. Part of the money came from former PM Paul Martin, who gave Pearson a personal cheque for $100,000. The schools will take three months to build. Pearson will bring Martin and his wife, Sheila Martin, to an official opening in January 2011 when the temperatures are more temperate. Pearson has three children who were adopted from the Sudan and for Christmas the final two received their Canadian citizenship cards.

Prorogue nation

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 11:47 AM - 33 Comments

Glen Pearson leaves for Africa with much on his mind.

Like many reading this blog, I’ve done a lot of thinking over the present prorogation of Parliament and I presume I’m in the vanguard of those who are deeply troubled by the development. Yet in so many ways, Canada has been prorogued for years. Suspending or cancelling our international commitment to Africa is bad enough, but where also is our commitment to battling climate change, or how could we spend so abundantly with no plan in place for how we pay it off? While our Aboriginal communities still suffer from our prorogation of the human spirit, this country yet refuses to sign the UN’s Declaration of Aboriginal Rights. We went AWOL on medical isotopes and have done absolutely nothing to deal with the emerging healthcare crisis already at our doorstep. Child poverty is roughly what it was 20 years ago and we still haven’t figured out what our development plans look like as we leave Afghanistan.

Heck, this country has been in prorogation for a long time, enough that it might be time to worry that it’s becoming part of our collective DNA. In our inability and lack of maturity surrounding minority government, we take the kind of incremental steps that lead to … nothing. Parliamentarians sit fewer days in the House than ever before and these significant issues lie in wait for someone to use power for anything other than the desire to hold on to it.

Political scientists (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 1:02 PM - 88 Comments

Glen Pearson considers himself as a “doe-eyed” 59-year-old.

I have brought all these experiences with me into politics, so I have a bit of trouble viewing myself as naive. But if the author was saying that I wouldn’t play along with the political system that surrounds me in Ottawa, I suppose that’s true. Nevertheless, I don’t want to lose that more innocent view I have of Parliament just so I could be a seasoned performer. To the House of Commons I brought the view that Parliament mattered far more than any politician or bureaucrat. Undertaking the massive challenges that face Canadians at the moment calls out for the very best in us, including our ideals. I know very well how brutal the Diefenbaker-Pearson years were now that I’m older, but I still recall the respect they permitted a little boy to witness. Ottawa can rip that respectfulness out of you, however, if you just play along, and soon enough skepticism and rank partisanship can become your worldview – not a good thing for any public servant. Ideals aren’t about naivete, but about our resolve to put the public good above all else. To lose that is not about losing your ideals but more about losing yourself to those crass political practices that inevitably diminish us as observers in Ottawa. I pray every day that God will protect me from a fate as disillusioning as that.

In remembrance

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 34 Comments

On the 11th day of the 11th month, statements of remembrance from Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, Glen Pearson, Ujjal Dosanjh, James Bezan, Ruby Dhalla, Hedy Fry, Martha Hall Findlay, Peter Stoffer and Mark Holland.

Stoffer v. Duffy

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 6, 2009 at 12:35 PM - 56 Comments

Glen Pearson leaps to Peter Stoffer’s defence.

Let me say something about Peter Stoffer. In the annual Maclean’s poll on MPs, Stoffer repeatedly comes out on top as the most collegial of them all. He uses his influence to attempt to get MPs of all stripes to work together for various causes and events. Working in harmony with the Speaker of the House, each year he holds the “All Party Party” – a wildly popular evening in which MPs and their staffs all co-mingle and for a brief time put aside their party ideologies. It’s Stoeffer that oversees the annual soccer game between MPs and the media. When I asked him to come to my riding in London and hold a rally for the troops, he readily agreed even though he was from another party. That’s the kind of MP he is. He’s a popular public servant and can often be found in the lobby sitting with members from other parties.

But he’s more than symbolic. I was especially irked when Duffy called Stoffer a faker, who pretends to support Canadian troops but votes against funding allocations for them. Let’s be clear. There is no member of the House of Commons who is behind our men and women in uniform more than Peter Stoffer. Any MP, including Conservatives ones will tell you that. He was the one who led the charge in Parliament to protect soldiers medals that were otherwise being sold on EBay. The reason why he voted against the Conservative allocations on the military was because they offered embarrassing little support for the soldiers returned from active duty and who are having trouble moving on with their lives.

See, it's not so bad

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 1:49 PM - 4 Comments

Glen Pearson has pleasant conversations with MPs from other parties. And such as it is this is considered noteworthy.

In all, it was a remarkable day, made all the more meaningful by the willingness of members to put aside their more partisan ways to engage in a middle space, even if just for a time.  There was a lot of crossing over yesterday and Parliament was the better for it.

Frustration in the gallery

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 3:59 PM - 80 Comments

Glen Pearson considers Monday’s unpleasantness.

What transpired yesterday is something of an indicator as to what Parliament and the country itself has come to.  Protestors felt the need to invade a sacred place; parliamentarians looked uncomfortable and somewhat unmoved; and the media raced out into the halls to grab their pictures and stories of young people being muscled out of the Parliament buildings.

We’re better than this – all of us.  The bill itself was asking us to treat climate change seriously.  We haven’t and we’ll pay for it in world opinion at Copenhagen, not to mention global devastation.  The difficult things we will face in our future – environmental degradation, terrorism, starvation, poverty – demand outrage, attention and a sense of urgency.  Parliament can’t muster up that kind of anger, except to lob our partisan attacks.  So, these young people brought it into our own ballpark, trying to give us a wake-up call.

False dichotomy

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 10:54 AM - 11 Comments

Rob Silver responds to Glen Pearson’s response to Andrew Coyne’s suggestion.

The dichotomy Glen buys into is either you say nothing (the “safe option”) or you put out lots of smart, detailed policies (the “risky option”). The risky option is akin to political suicide and therefore the safe option must be followed at all costs … The real dichotomy is between communicating your ideas well – whether those ideas are bold or more of the same – versus communicating your ideas poorly.

Is it possible to get a fair hearing?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 26, 2009 at 12:56 AM - 62 Comments

Last week our Andrew Coyne argued that now is the time for Michael Ignatieff to deal honestly and directly with the deficit and the state of government finances going forward. In response, Glen Pearson wonders if the press gallery is ready to do likewise.

Let’s be honest: No political leader in their right mind dares to be as truthful as Coyne challenges because it would be the media itself that couldn’t withhold its skepticism long enough to truly investigate the merits of that leader’s case. Opposition parties would immediately pounce and all manner of bloggers, pundits and columnists would discuss the scary ramifications of such a daredevil proposition. I recall when Ignatieff came to London following a visit to Cambridge, in which he stated no leader would be worthy of the name if he or she didn’t place the possibility of raising taxes on a long list of future considerations if a deficit couldn’t be brought under control. Political staffers mulled around, worried that it would be taken out of context, which it inevitably was … The very next day in the House, Conservative members used every possible occasion to ridicule Ignatieff, calling him just another “tax and spend” Liberal. The media ate it up.

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 19, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 7 Comments

Glen Pearson lobbies for accountability in foreign aid.

The Harper government presented its first annual accounting report on the Aid Accountability Act to Parliament two weeks ago, and many waited with keen anticipation to see if the government would continue hiding CIDA within a cloak and dagger operation or if it would finally use such a solemn occasion to finally treat the issue with a hoped for trait of transparency. I worked with a team of NGOs, large and small, to analyze the paper once it was presented and, sadly, it was unanimously agreed that the accountability inherent in C-293 is not being accurately reported – the smoke and mirrors remain…

We examined the new report in comparison with the accounting the British version of CIDA (Department For International Development) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development must undertake each year. While CIDA’s accounting for $3.75 billion comprises only six pages, the other reports run in the dozens of pages. In the area of health, where the other reports are expansive, CIDA’s report offers the reader no idea of the details of the Canadian programs, their overall impact, or even the location where those programs took place.

'That choice is now his'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 16, 2009 at 12:11 PM - 54 Comments

Glen Pearson considers Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize, Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff.

Politics is desperately in need of game-changers – leaders who go for the impossible as opposed to the prudent, for principle over power, peace over pragmatism. Stephen Harper can never be that person because he’s an incrementalist, attempting not to change the channel but to just bore us with all the noise in hopes we won’t catch on to the subtle changes he’s introducing. To accomplish his agenda, he requires stealth.  Michael Ignatieff is the only leader close enough to forming government who has the potential to inspire us once again. But for that to happen he mustn’t be so much defined by politics as transcending it. That choice is now his.

Politics before God

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 12:42 PM - 18 Comments

Glen Pearson struggles with with the intersection of faith and partisanship.

For people of faith, the imperative is there to combine our efforts to live honorable lives, especially among one another.  We either set a new and noble example or we fail.  Politics in Ottawa is hard, mean and downright oppressive right now. Faith, on the other hand, is meant to bring us together for a greater good, to transcend any particular political branding for the sake of making this world better.  When the two come together, as they did this morning, there wasn’t one person there who wouldn’t have admitted that love for God and our fellow human being, as expressed in our faith, is meant to trump politics at each and every turn.  We are meant to put that belief on the line by casting aside the meanness of partisanship to embrace, in humility, a common bond. We can disagree, but in respect.  It’s not a love-in, but it’s not a rugby match either…

If faith is going to matter, it has to matter in the House of Commons and be lived out in lives of humility and service. Some at the breakfast practice that kind of faith; others of us don’t.

So much stuff

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 12:14 PM - 99 Comments

Glen Pearson laments, defends and responds.

I listened to a Conservative MP friend of mine blasting Michael Ignatieff in an interview today for living too long outside the country to be an effective Prime Minister.  When I jokingly said later that he was “shameless,” he responded with, “I know, but it’s the stuff they give us.”

Alas, this is the stuff the PMO gives us all.

Mitchel Raphael on the minister who made Flare’s list

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

The only place this MP can relax
Toronto Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay recently turned 50. For her birthday she received a hand-painted canoe paddle from her son Patrick Findlay. Her daughter gave her a framed photo of her canoe at sunset, which she plans to hang in her Ottawa office. Hall Findlay spent two years refurbishing the canoe, which used to belong to her father, stripping it down and doing the repair work herself. She was able to take some time off this summer and paddle the canoe around Georgian Bay, among the Thirty Thousand Islands. It’s the one way she can relax, she told Capital Diary. “I have a terrible time sitting still,” says the Willowdale, Ont., MP. “In the canoe I am forced to do nothing but think.”

The MP, his father and the Italian mountain
For their 10th wedding anniversary, Ontario Liberal MP Glen Pearson and his wife, Jane Roy, went to Italy for two weeks, the first real holiday they have taken alone without children or guests since they were married. The couple often travel to Africa and are usually accompanied by lots of other people. While in Sicily, Pearson and Roy climbed Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano. Pearson really wanted to see it because it was around that site during the Second World War that his father landed with Canadian forces to fight. His father, who was wounded twice in the war, told Pearson he had seen Etna erupt. Pearson says climbing is in his blood because he grew up near the Rockies in Calgary. Etna is over three kilometres high, and it took the couple a full day to go up and down it. He says it was much easier than when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2005. Pearson also visited the Commonwealth cemetery in the town of Agira where Canadians, including several of his father’s Second World War comrades, are buried. Pearson was so moved by the cemetery, which he discovered by fluke, that he sent a message to Defence Minister Peter MacKay to make sure he knew about it. MacKay, he says, appreciated the gesture. Continue…

'I'm mildly curious about my future'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 1:03 AM - 24 Comments

The phone rings 10 minutes past the allotted time and Elizabeth May apologizes. Seems she lost track of time after getting in late the night before after a weekend in Whitehorse. There she delivered a speech—to an overflow crowd, she says—and signed copies of her new book, Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy. She met with Yukon native leaders and took part in a fundraising dinner of Jamaican cuisine. And she held a press conference and conducted a workshop with young people on “water issues” and visited a community BBQ and invited locals to meet her for coffee at a bakery. “And I got to church,” she says.

And, in case you were wondering, carbon offsets were purchased—twice the necessary amount in fact—to counter any damage to the environment resulting from her travel. Continue…

If it is broke, fix it

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 11 Comments

Glen Pearson makes the case for Michael Ignatieff’s decision.

Governments are not supposed to dismantle the very system meant to keep it accountable, but this has been going on for three years and Mr. Ignatieff has concluded it’s time to end it.  The polls aren’t in his favor and the Conservatives will attempt to embarrass him at every opportunity, but the reality is that he took his stand. You may agree or not, but he took it, putting an end to two years of wavering as the public service crumbled.

Stephen Harper could avoid an election by just becoming accountable, but his partisan tactics fly in the face of such urgings.  A stand was taken at Sudbury, not just for the Liberals but for the health system, the pension system, the passport system, and the economic accountability system within Parliament.  You might or might not be a member of any political party, but Parliament is yours and somebody has finally opted to preserve its integrity. Like it or not, it’s done and its time for Parliament, not politics, to reassume the primary place.

Forgiveness

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 2:18 PM - 8 Comments

Glen Pearson reflects on Suaad Hagi Mohamud’s appearance at the foreign affairs committee yesterday.

Key people investigating the incident have determined that Ms. Mohamud did absolutely nothing wrong. It was, in fact, her government that had failed her … miserably. There is an investigation under way, yet it is happening specifically because she was innocent. Guilt on her part is not an issue here, but even with that the Government cannot bring itself to apologize. All three opposition parties offered heartfelt apologies. And some of the Government members expressed sorrow at what had happened to her.  But clearly they had been given direction to not apologize for the incident. You could see the struggle in their own eyes and I could tell easily that a couple of them wanted to offer their apologies. But they didn’t and that is just a symbol of much that is wrong at the moment.

A lone woman, a citizen of Canada, telling her story as only she could. It was drama in every sense of the word. In the end, however, the drama was eclipsed by the sobering reality that this could happen to any of us, or our children. There have been too many such incidents of late and people are having trouble believing us when we say we will protect their rights overseas. Something’s not right and the system needs to be fixed. I just don’t know how we can take the next step when a government cannot bring itself to admit its own series of blunders. Ms. Mohamud needs and deserves an apology. We in Parliament need to ask for forgiveness.