OttawaWatch: Cross-party faith groups for all tastes

OttawaWatch: Cross-party faith groups for all tastes

By Lloyd Mackey

The following article will appear in the next issue (October 18) of The HillTimes, a tabloid weekly that serves Parliament Hill and is widely read by politicians and political aficionados. At the end of the article is a list of what I describe as "people of interest" who have some affinity for one of the groups featured in the story, the Parliamentary Pro Life Caucus.

LIFE, human rights and family.

These issues -- and their faith-based implications -- find continuing expression in two cross-party groups lurking around the edges of Parliament. One, dubbed a "caucus" and the other, a "committee of parliament" draw support mainly from politicians who are known to let their faith inform their politics.

Spiked by such diverse issues as same-sex marriage and the potential for genocide in Darfur, individual politicians who take the Bible or other sacred texts seriously have some choice, depending on the issues they want to explore or debate.

For close to a decade, the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus (PPLC) has been a fixture on The Hill. It has been supported by substantial numbers of MPs from three parties and a few besides in the other two. At any given time, up to 70 MPs and senators have allowed their names to be on the PPLC list. Whether or not they are themselves pro-life, they know enough to inform themselves of an issue that occupies the thinking of a fair number of their constituents.

And a new body, the All-Party and Interfaith Committee of Canadian Parliament (APICCP), has recently come into existence. Its deliberations will be mainly in the area of human rights, both in Canada and in the many nations where rights questions are the subject of much deeper division than they are at home.

The PPLC will take on new dynamics this fall, coming in part from the merger of the Alliance and Conservative parties. Until the election writ was dropped, the group had three co-chairs; the Conservatives' Elsie Wayne, Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) of the Alliance and Liberal Paul Steckle (Huron-Bruce).

Now, there are only two -- Vellacott and Steckle. As it happens, both are serious Mennonites and known in their ridings as people whose faith informs them. They both happen, as well, to be serving ridings where there are enough evangelical Christians on their respective voters' lists, to provide a "balance of power" at election time.

Both Vellacott and Steckle are looking forward to the choosing of their third co-chair after the House of Commons begins sitting on October 4. Neither the NDP nor the Bloc have produced MPs supportive of the PPLC in any numbers approaching either the Liberals or the Conservatives. But both of the current PPLC chairs have indicated their willingness to have an NDPer share the duties. Bev Dejarlais (Churchill, Manitoba) who is the current chair of the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, is seen as someone who might be acceptable to the PPLC participants.

The chair choices are made by the joint caucus members themselves, not by the party leaders. And support for PPLC activities is shared from individual MPs' own office budgets, not from the political parties' caucus offices or House of Commons allocations.

Another dynamic -- on the staff level -- will change as well.

Tim Bloedow has been the administrative assistant to the PPLC, working out of desk space in Vellacott's office. His task has been to involve Campaign Life Canada and other pro-life groups in an information-providing role for the caucus, while keeping the advocacy groups at enough arms length that they do not dominate the politicians' deliberations.

Bloedow brought a fair amount of experience to the role. He has, himself, been involved in a number of socially-conservative groups and, for some years, published a Christian-based political analysis newspaper known variously as Ottawa Times and Conservative Times. And during the 2004 election, he gained hustings credentials by running for the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. He garnered 459 votes -- not enough to be blamed for vote-splitting. Former Chretien cabinet minister Don Boudria was re-elected with a plurality of some 5,000 over Conservative Alain Lalonde. (CHP leader Ron Grey periodically claims that his group is the only "real social conservative party" in Canada.)

This summer, Vellacott hired Bloedow away from the PPLC to be his legislative assistant, replacing John Earnshaw, who has left The Hill to wrap up doctoral studies at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Replacing Bloedow is Barbara McAdorey, a BA in social development from University of Waterloo. She has held several volunteer and paid pro-life jobs, the latest of which has been administrator of Canadian Physicians for Life.

The changing dynamics might lead to a broadening emphasis, to the coverage of family issues, if Steckle's comments are any indicator. He points out that family issues are receiving more play than life questions these days, partly because of the looming same-sex marriage reference by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Because there are members in every party who are hesitant to back an all-out endorsement of same sex marriage, pro-family advocates see some more direct ways to get their views in front of the politicians.

It is a fair assumption that the PPLC will start to draw more interest from the left side of the political spectrum -- from people whose views, like those of Dejarlais, reflect left on fiscal matters but closer to the centre or even slightly right on social issues.

As for the APICCP, it will tend to draw, at first, religious people from the left side of the spectrum, who focus on the passages from the sacred texts that emphasize human and minority rights. But, in due course, more conservative people will get involved, with their interest drawing from their awareness of religious mission and development activities in many of the nations that will be the focus of this new group. (Those activities cross religious lines: two of the most influential religious development organizations are Christian-based World Vision and the Aga Khan Foundation, an Ismaili Muslim group.)

APICCP's parliamentary chair is Liberal MP David Kilgour (Edmonton-Beaumont), a devout and evangelically-leaning Presbyterian who, in the Chretien cabinet, was, at various times, minister of state for Latin America/Africa and Asia/Pacific.

His chosen co-chair is Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who holds no elective office but is well-known in Ottawa for his human rights and ecumenical relations work.

Last Tuesday, September 28, in its first session since the June 28 election, the committee focused on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, with its chief witness being Pius Ncube, Catholic archbishop of the Zimbabwean archdiocese of Bulawayo.

Kilgour announced Ncube as one of the few public figures prepared to speak out against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on what he suggested was the mounting evidence of human rights abuses.

Ncube's presentation suggested that the Zimbabwean president is a "powermonger . . . who is prepared to kill for power."

He charged that, apart from building up a dismal human rights record, Mugabe has imposed conditions, since taking power in 1980, that have included chronic food shortages, high unemployment rates, staggering inflation and political crisis.

Ncube suggested there are now close to four million Zimbabweans forced to live outside their country -- many in South Africa and substantial numbers, as well in Great Britain, United States in Canada.

Kilgour's hope is that figures such as Ncube, coming from various nations where human rights are at issue, will add a dimension to Parliament's foreign affairs deliberations. He has a ways to go before the "all-party" part of the group's title comes to fruition. The timing of the meeting was two days before the pre-session caucus meetings the four Commons parties, so a fair number of MPs with foreign affairs and human rights interests were a long way from the Centre Block Reading Room, where the meeting took place.

But judging from the number of people in the audience of 100 attending the session, who wore clergy collars and seemed visibly of Afro extraction, the "interfaith" reference in the APICCP's name was off to a modestly auspicious start.

As for Kilgour himself, he did not make the cut for Prime Minister Paul Martin's cabinet, but Martin is known to appreciate him for his perceived diplomatic competence. So the APICCP assignment, together with the fact that he was never moved out of the East Block office assigned to him when he was in cabinet, seem to point to a continuing role on international human rights issues.

In fact, Kilgour's interest is more than faintly reminiscent of Lloyd Axworthy, who held the foreign affairs portfolio for some years in Chretien's cabinet. Axworthy's faith -- and his consultations with his then-pastor, James Christie of Ottawa's Southminster United Church -- became the subject of several extensive media interviews. In those sessions, he noted that he was participant in a rights-based foreign policy that was endemic to the Chretien Liberals. Christie's usefulness to him, he suggested, was in helping him to reconcile various human rights issues with the concept of a "just war."

The presence of these two cross-party groups on the Hill, both faith-shaped, could take on new importance in the minority parliament. They will provide input, undoubtedly, for free votes proposed by both government backbenchers and opposition MPs, whose views are shared across the aisle of the House, on ethical, moral, rights and social issues.

Who's who around PPLC

The Parliamentary Pro Life Caucus does not release its list but says about 70 MPs and senators are on it. Average attendance at a PPLC meeting is about 25, two-thirds of whom are Conservatives and one-third Liberals, with support from other parties, at present, almost indiscernable.

The following list, provided by the writer, is partial and representative. Members involved in the PPLC might have a ranges of reasons. They may support it from their own budgets because they are committed to it, or simply attend meetings regularly or periodically for information purposes. Or they may do both.

This list is based on members' known voting records on life or family issues, or their public statements of affinity for some or all of the objectives of the pro-life movement.

We apologize to anyone who wanted to be on this list but was left off. You will just have to speak up more.

Liberals

David Anderson (Victoria)
Raymond Chan (Richmond)
Roger Gallaway (Sarnia-Lambton)
Charles Hubbard (Miramichi)
David Kilgour (Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont)
Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan)
Paul Martin (LaSalle-Emard)
John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood)
Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East)
Patrick O'Brien (London-Fanshawe)
Paul Steckle (Huron-Bruce)
Andy Savoy (Tobique-Mactaquac)
Paul Szabo (Mississauga South)
Rose-Marie Ur (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex)
Tom Wappel (Scarborough Southwest)
Paul Zed (Saint John)

Conservatives

Jim Abbott (Kootenay-Columbia)
Diane Ablonczy (Calgary Nose Hill)
Rob Anders (Calgary West)
David Anderson (Cypress Hills-Grassland)
Leon Benoit (Vegreville-Wainwright)
Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville)
John Cummins (Delta-Richmond-East)
Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla)
Ken Epp (Edmonton-Sherwood Park)
Brian Fitzpatrick (Prince Albert)
Art Hanger (Calgary Northeast)
Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest)
Russ Hieberts (South Surrey-White Rock)
Randy Kamp (Dewdney-Alouette)
Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast)
Ed Komarnicki (Souris-Moose Mountain)
James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni)
Peter MacKay (Central Nova)
Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead)
Jim Prentice (Calgary North Centre)
Carol Skelton (Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar)
Monte Solberg (Medicine Hat)
Chuck Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon)
Vic Toews (Provencher)
Myron Thompson (Wild Rose)
Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe)
Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin)
Mark Warawa (Langley)
Randy White (Abbotsford)
Jeff Watson (Essex)