So much of the time, public and media attention is directed at the government in power, applauding or criticizing decisions made while in power.
But occasionally, it is the MLAs or MPs that sit in opposition that can push a boulder up a hill and get people from across party lines to support doing the right thing. That was the case with Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel, who has been making waves in the best way possible in the last month, whether it has been making an impassioned speech in the House on Alberta’s ailing economy and unemployment, or in seeking to help suffering refugees.
For several months, Rempel has been highlighting the treatment of Yazidi survivors of genocide under ISIS, living in northern Iraq and Syria. ISIS militants have been targeting this religious minority, seen as infidels, with thousands of Yazidi men killed and women and children bought and sold in slave markets or forced into sexual slavery. The Yazidi women who have escaped ISIS captivity have been through more than hell and back, as Rempel pointed out, as she fought to have the government recognize this as genocide and work with more urgency to bring Yazidi refugees to Canada.
Rempel convinced her Conservative colleagues to use a rare opposition day to put forward a motion to recognize the violence as a genocide and commit to providing asylum to Yazidis women and girls within 120 days. After months of feet-dragging from the Liberals on this file, on Oct. 25, MPs from all four parties voted 313-0 in favour of the motion.
Her dogged work to get MPs support, and now, to push them to find ways to bring refugees to Canada despite the challenges in doing so, highlights why a healthy, strong opposition is so important to democracies. Critics had charged that the Liberals’ slowness to defer to the United Nations’ lead on Yazidi genocide and refugees had more to do with its pursuit of a seat on the UN’s Security Council than anything else – quite at odds, surely, with the warm, welcoming image that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been trying to promote for Canada.
It’s a good lesson for politicians of all stripes to note, if they can move past partisanship and build cross-party support for doing the right thing, they can surely get that boulder up the hill.
