Report From Parliament's Hill - March 13th,2008

By Prince George - Peace River M.P. Jay Hill

NDP Selective On Women’s Rights

Can you imagine the reaction of the New Democratic Party and Canada’s major national news media if the Government of Canada took no action and refused to participate in a United Nations-sanctioned mission to intervene in a war-torn, poverty-stricken nation where women and children were brutally slaughtered daily for something as simple as showing their faces? 

The NDP, the party that likes to sell itself as THE champion of women’s rights and the impoverished, would express their outrage and indignation.  They would accuse the Conservative Party of abandoning women and allowing the continued brutalization of children.  The would demand that Canada “do something”!

And yet last week, International Women’s Week, when Canada hosted six democratically-elected female members of the Afghan National Assembly, the NDP was strangely and hypocritically silent.  These women were able to be here thanks to the bravery and sacrifice of Canadian soldiers and, due to the shameful lack of media coverage, most Canadians didn’t even know about their week-long visit.

I wish that each and every Canadian could have met these incredible women. Can you imagine the courage it takes to stand for election in a country where before the arrival of the UN-backed NATO troops, a woman would be publicly executed by the Taliban government simply for teaching girls or not covering her face?

I wonder if Jack Layton had the courage to look these women in the eye and repeat his absurd suggestion that they “share power” with the Taliban, the very group that wants to execute them for daring to be an elected representative. 

What happened to the concern of the NDP and the Liberals that women are underrepresented in Canada’s Parliament?  Under Jack Layton’s proposal for power sharing with the Taliban, there wouldn’t be a single female parliamentarian in Afghanistan.

And speaking of democracy here in Canada, the opposition parties’ claims that the Canadian Forces mission to Afghanistan has not been subject to democratic debate are equally hypocritical.

The former Liberal government held absolutely no debate when Canadian soldiers were first sent to Afghanistan in 2001.  Stephen Harper is the first Prime Minister since the Second World War who has given Parliament the power to decide whether Canada will participate in a military mission.  The most recent debate in the House – a Conservative initiative – was over 30 hours.  And that follows the countless hours of previous parliamentary debate.

The Conservative ministers of Foreign Affairs and National Defence have appeared 17 times before standing committees of the House of Commons to discuss the Afghan mission.  Our Government has held 15 technical briefings to inform the public.  And of course there was the non-partisan Manley commission.

And still, the NDP are trying to convince Canadians that democratic debate is missing on this matter and they accuse our Conservative Government of not being transparent.

Well it’s the NDP that’s certainly transparent on this issue … transparently hypocritical.  Either you believe in women’s rights, or you don’t!

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