He's technically retired, but former MP David Kilgour is just as busy
now as he was when he was in the House of Commons. Even his wife thinks so, he
tells me over lunch at the Parliament Pub last week.
In 2005, Mr.
Kilgour retired after 26 years in Parliament. During his tenure in the House, he
acquired a reputation for being a politician with an independent streak. He
started out as a Progressive Conservative, crossed the floor to the Liberal
side, then later dumped the Grits to sit as an independent when former Prime
Minister Paul Martin refused to commit to more aid for Sudan's Darfur
region. While some political commentators have called his moves unwise, one
thing stands out about Mr. Kilgour–if it's a case involving human rights, he's
ready to stand up and be counted among those who care.
That was the
situation in the House of Commons in May 2005 when Mr. Kilgour became an
unlikely power broker when a confidence vote in the House rested on his support
for the minority Liberal government of the day. He refused to side with the
government, which narrowly survived because of the Speaker's vote.
On
exiting parliament, Mr. Kilgour embraced the cause of the Falun Gong. Last July,
he co-authored a report detailing how the Chinese government harvests the organs
of imprisoned Falun Gong members. The report generated a lot of interest around
the world, with Mr. Kilgour traveling to 30 capitals to explain to governments
the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
But if you think the
moniker "Kilgour of Darfur" is no longer appropriate, he is quick to assert that
he hasn't abandoned the desolate region, and adds that the high profile he gave
to the Darfur cause when he was an MP is still very much alive in the House of
Commons as MPs Irwin Cotler and Maurice Vellacott are quite active
on the Darfur issue, as is Senator Roméo Dallaire. Plus, says Mr.
Kilgour, he still gets 10 emails every day on Darfur. He recently attended a
mock genocide trial in New York that found Sudanese President Omar Hassan El
Bashir guilty of genocide.
"If anyone looks at my website, it's just
full of stuff on Darfur," he says.
I point out that while the Darfur
cause may still be alive in Parliament, no other MP has measured up to him
because the government nearly collapsed of his vote.
"But that was a
peculiar situation–a fluke if you like," he says.
"A situation almost
never arises when they needed one vote."
Mr. Kilgour says he's
encouraged by the response he's received about his role in highlighting the
alleged harvesting of organs from Falun Gong members. Some countries have taken
measures to curb the trade in organs from China, and Mr. Kilgour says he's
pleased with the efforts made by Australia and New Zealand regarding the matter.
"I hear the number of people going for transplants in China [from
Australia] has collapsed," he says.
But he says within China, things
haven't changed much because Falun Gong members are still being arrested and
having their organs removed and sold to clients for $20,000.
In Canada,
he says, there is evidence that in the last several years, about 100 Canadians
have sought transplants in China. Mr. Kilgour says this is based on discussions
with transplant specialists in three prominent Canadian hospitals. However, he
also adds that the Chinese government has launched a smear campaign against
Falun Gong, telling its citizens that the group is opposed to the hosting of the
Olympic games by Beijing. Personally, he says, throughout his travels on the
organ harvesting issue, he and David Matas, his co-author on the report,
have not called for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics.
But there are other
human rights files Mr. Kilgour is actively working on. These include the human
rights situation in Burma, where thousands of Karen people have been removed
from their villages by the ruling junta.
"That's a situation that is
equally terrible, but there's very little reporting on it," he says.
He
drops his voice to a whisper and squinting his eyes, he says:
"Children,
women–human beings are hunted like rabbits in parts of Burma because they are in
no-go zones."
In a month's time, Mr. Kilgour's hitting the advocacy
trail again and will travel to over a dozen international capitals to talk about
various human rights issues, including the plight of 3,500 members of the
People's Mujahedeen stuck in camps in Iraq.
The People's Mujahedeen is a
group opposed to the Iranian regime. In the 1980s, the group launched an armed
struggle against Iran's mullahs from inside Iraq. It has been designated a
terrorist group in the United States and Canada. Most recently the European
Union branded the group as terrorists, but a court ruling early this year
overturned the decision.
The People's Mujahedeen has renounced violence
and has given up armed struggle as a means of getting to power. But the future
of its members in Iraq remains in limbo. Mr. Kilgour says recent utterances by
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the members should be
repatriated to Iran are a cause of concern.
It seems retirement, in the
strict sense of the word, is still not an option for Mr. Kilgour.
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