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By Lloyd Mackey
Until his retirement from electoral politics, just
before the 2006 election, David Kilgour was one of Canada’s longest
serving members of parliament. In that role, he was well known as a
Christian believer who was active in encouraging the faith/political
interface through the parliamentary prayer breakfast movement and the
Christian Embassy. In this interview, he answers questions about the
relationships between faith, human rights and politics on the world scene.
ITW: Please tell us a
little about your political pilgrimage.
David Kilgour: Having
begun in a Winnipeg Liberal family, I moved in my teens to the
Conservatives under John Diefenbaker, later running for Parliament under
both Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark.
In the 1980s, disillusionment set in with the ethics
and some policies of the party under Brian Mulroney. In the early 90s, I
joined the Liberals under Jean Chrétien and served as Secretary of
State for Africa and Latin America (1997 – 2002) and Asia-Pacific
(2002 – 2003).
ITW: How did the cabinet
portfolios you held influence you?
DK: Colleagues in the
Foreign Affairs ministry . . . and in the respective countries . . . were
genuinely concerned about advancing the well-being of all the residents of
the various countries economically, socially, culturally – and in
terms of issues like democratic transparency and combating corruption.
ITW: Can you tell us about
your faith pilgrimage and how it played into your interest in human rights?
DK: Like many, my
Christian faith has evolved over the years and is hopefully a good deal
stronger now. I think believers in any of the world’s great religions
start with the premise that every person is equal in the eyes of God.
Dignity for all, human rights, education, equal opportunity, a decent job
for members of every national and regional community – all should be
major goals of faith community members everywhere.
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ITW: How did you come,
after retirement from politics, to choose the particular issues of Darfur
and the Falun Gong?
DK: I had followed the
north–south conflict in Sudan for many years, which was religion,
ethnicity and oil-based. In April,
2003 the genocide began in Darfur. Residents of the
province who considered themselves to be Arabs began to bomb, burn, murder
and gang rape their longtime neighbours of the same Muslim faith, whom they
deemed to be Africans.
Human rights lawyer David Matas and I were asked to
conduct an independent study into whether the allegations of organ
pillaging from Falun Gong practitioners in China were correct. Our report, Bloody Harvest, concludes that
the party-state in China and its agencies have over six years put to death
– and sold the organs of – a large number of Falun Gong
prisoners of conscience.
ITW: How are those two
particular issues similar, particularly as they relate to government human
rights pressures or limitations that have to do with religious beliefs?
DK: They both share a
number of elements. Regrettably, the totalitarian governments in both
Khartoum and Beijing place little value in most human lives. Neither values
racial equality, peace, freedom of religion, the rule of law or compromise.
ITW: What can Christians
do, in particular, to prevent or cope with religious-based persecution or
human rights abuses?
DK: ‘Naming and
shaming’ with placards in front of the embassy and consulates of
China across Canada and elsewhere is probably the most useful method during
the pre-Olympic period.
Winter/Spring 2008
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