Justice minister campaigns on rights of victims gŏđŏ editionap.ca
zone at one point during which time he and his party were close by when an insurgent bomb went off. “We should never forget how we ended up in there,” MacKay said, referring to the Taliban-sponsored destruction on Sept. 11, 2001 of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Canada’s participation in the allied counterattack on Afghanistan, home of the Taliban, ended aftermore than 12 years with the final withdrawal of Canadian troops from their main operations area in Kanda- har province. MacKay noted that Canada’s role in Afghanistan was not limited to just fighting the tyrannical Taliban government and its fundamentalist allies. “There are now over eight million child- ren going to school in Afghanistan, who were not able to go to school when the mis- sion began,” MacKay said. “A third of those children are girls.” When they were not out on patrol or fi- ghting insurgents in the outlying districts of Kandahar, Canadian soldiers worked with civilian aid groups to build schools and hos- pitals and help train local police and militia to take over protecting the country and its people when the allied forces left. Where the old Taliban fundamentalist government kept women subjugated as second-class citizens, more than a third of the representatives now sitting in the cur- rent Afghan parliament are women. Mac- Kay noted that even Canada’s parliament does not have that level of representation for women. “It will be women who change Afghanis- tan,” MacKay said. “When we consider the value of the Canadian mission in Afghanis- tan, I, for one, say, yes, it was worth it.”
Photo Gregg Chamberlain
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
WENDOVER | Justice Minister Peter MacK- ay was the special guest of honour over the weekend for MP Pierre Lemieux’s an- nual Spring Gala. But the newest addition to the MacKay family proved an even big- ger attraction to many of the more than 200 guests and dignataries assembled in Wendover for the evening. Almost a year old now, Kian MacKay see- med as popular as his father during the opening meet-and-greet when he and his parents arrived. Both father Peter and mo- ther Nazanin Afshin-Jam took turns either holding or leading their little son, or being led by him, around the community centre auditorium to the delight of many there. Later on at the microphone, while his own supper cooled, the federal justice minister talked about a more sombre subject, the recent introduction April 3 of his Victims’ Rights Bill legislation before Parliament. “It brings me professionally full circle,” MacKay said, noting that he worked as a Crown prosecutor in Nova Scotia before en- tering federal politics. The rights of victims of crime were the main motivation behind his initial election bid to become MP for Central Nova. “This (legislation) is a correction, or a reca- libration, of the Canadian justice system,”he said. Alternating between English and French, MacKay recalled that during public consul- tations prior to the drafting of the legis- lation he heard many “very heart-wren-
Justice minister Peter MacKay is in full father mode as he keeps his one-year-old son, Kian, close to him while managing to shake hands with Conservative supporters during Saturday evening’s Annual Spring Gala of MP Pierre Lemieux inWendover.
ching and some troubling tales” about people who were victims of robbery and other crimes and yet who felt isolated and ignored as their cases ground through the criminal justice system. “I believe this (legislation) is a step in the right direction.” MacKay also talked about the legislation now before parliament to deal with cyber bullying. “This is an insidious situation,” he said,
adding that the bill will give police greater power to deal with Internet abuses and also make cyber bullies and their virtual crimes subject to the same kind of penalties as apply to bullies who subject their victims to physical and verbal abuse in real time. Towards the end of his speech, MacKay mused on the Afghan War and Canada’s military and humanitarian aid mission there. MacKay was defence minister at the time and made a personal visit to the war
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