David Kilgour | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kilgour in 2008 | |
| Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) | |
| In office January 15, 2002 – December 12, 2003 | |
| Prime Minister | Jean Chrétien |
| Minister | Bill Graham |
| Preceded by | Rey Pagtakhan |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa) | |
| In office June 11, 1997 – January 14, 2002 | |
| Prime Minister | Jean Chrétien |
| Minister | Lloyd Axworthy John Manley |
| Preceded by | Christine Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Denis Paradis |
| Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada Chairman of Committees of the Whole | |
| In office January 18, 1994 – April 27, 1997 | |
| Speaker | Gilbert Parent |
| Preceded by | Andrée Champagne (1993) |
| Succeeded by | Peter Milliken |
| Member of Parliament forEdmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont (Edmonton–Beaumont; 2004) (Edmonton Southeast; 1988–2004) (Edmonton—Strathcona; 1979–1988) | |
| In office May 22, 1979 – January 23, 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Douglas Roche |
| Succeeded by | Mike Lake |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David William Kilgour (1941-02-18)February 18, 1941 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Died | April 5, 2022(2022-04-05) (aged 81) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Party | Independent (2005–2006) |
| Other political affiliations | Progressive Conservative (1979–1990) Liberal (1990–2005) |
| Relatives | Geills Turner (sister) |
| Alma mater | University of Manitoba University of Toronto Faculty of Law |
| Profession |
|
David William KilgourPC (February 18, 1941 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadianhuman rights activist, author, lawyer, and politician. He also served as a senior fellow to theRaoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Kilgour earned a degree in economics from theUniversity of Manitoba in 1962 and a law degree from theUniversity of Toronto in 1966. His career spanned roles from a crown attorney in northern Alberta toCanadian Cabinet minister. He concluded his 27-year tenure in theHouse of Commons of Canada as an independent MP. Upon retirement, he was one of the longest-serving members of parliament and one of the few who had been elected under both theProgressive Conservative andLiberal banners.
Kilgour was originally elected as a member of theProgressive Conservative Party in 1979. He first sought election in1968 in theriding ofVancouver Centre as a Progressive Conservative. He did not run again until the1979 election, inEdmonton; he won a seat this time and went on to serve as a member of parliament for about 27 years. In April 1990, he was expelled from the Tory national caucus after criticizing theMulroney government's policies.[1] He sat as an independent for several months before joining the Liberals.[citation needed]
In the Liberal government, he served as the Deputy Speaker (1993–1997) and Chairman of Committees of the Whole of the House of Commons, Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa) (1997–2002), andSecretary of State (Asia-Pacific) (2002–2003). In the Conservative governments ofJoe Clark and Brian Mulroney he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Privy Council, the Minister for CIDA, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and the Minister of Transport.[2]
As a Secretary of State, Kilgour was continuously vocal on many human rights violations around the world.[citation needed] In 2001 while visiting Zimbabwe, Kilgour was vocally critical ofRobert Mugabe's farm-invasions policy and pushed for increasing international pressure.[3] In December 2004, he was among the Ukrainian election monitor delegation of the federal run-off elections.[citation needed]
In April 2005, he received media attention when he speculated about quitting the Liberal Party because of his disgust with thesponsorship scandal, saying that the issue made Canada look like "a northernbanana republic". On April 12, 2005, he announced that he would sit as an independent MP. He also cited Canada's lack of action on thecrisis in Darfur,Sudan, as reasons for quitting. He asserted that he had no plans to either join the reorganizedConservative Party of Canada or to run for re-election.[citation needed]
From1979 to1988, he represented the riding ofEdmonton Strathcona, but with shifting constituency lines moved toEdmonton Southeast in 1988, and then again toEdmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont in2004, which he represented until he retired from politics at the2006 election.[citation needed]
Because of the unusual structure of the38th House of Commons, in May 2005, David Kilgour's lone vote had the power to bring down or support the government. He used this influence to urge the Martin government to send peacekeepers to Darfur. He was an endorser of theGenocide Intervention Network.Prime MinisterPaul Martin agreed to send humanitarian support but in the end, no peacekeepers were sent.[4]
| 1968 Canadian federal election:Vancouver Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Ron Basford | 25,426 | 56.10 | +16.02 | ||||
| New Democratic | William Deverell | 11,151 | 24.60 | +1.54 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | David W. Kilgour | 8,326 | 18.37 | −9.43 | ||||
| Republican | Gerard Guejon[5] | 420 | 0.93 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 45,323 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +7.24 | ||||||
While being a lifelong practicing Christian, Kilgour worked on issues such as inter-faith dialog, personal freedoms, and democratic government throughout his career.[6] In Parliament, he was active in prayer groups while at venues and publications across the country he has spoken specifically on religious themes and politics. Commonly, his topics have been on global religious and political persecutions.[7] He served as a fellow of the Queen's University Centre for the Study of Democracy; a director of the Washington-basedCouncil for a Community of Democracies (CCD), and co-chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran, and hosted an Iran pro-democracy rally attended by approximately 90,000 in France in 2009.[8]
His personal religious beliefs landed him in the news in 2003 when he abstained from the same-sex marriage bill and was reprimanded by then Prime MinisterJean Chrétien.[9][non-primary source needed]
In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number ofFalun Gong practitioners had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry. WithDavid Matas he released theKilgour-Matas report,[10] which stated "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and "we believe that there have been and continue today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners".[10] In 2009, they published an updated version of the report as a book.[11] They traveled to about 50 countries to raise awareness of the situation.[12]
In 2012,State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China, edited by David Matas and Dr. Torsten Trey, was published with essays from six medical professionals,[13][14][15][16][17][18]Ethan Gutmann, David Matas and an essay co-written by Kilgour.[19][20][21][22] Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.[23][24][25][26]
Kilgour was married to Laura Scott, with whom he had five children.[6] He died on April 5, 2022, in Ottawa at the age of 81, from lung disease.[27]
Kilgour's older sisterGeills was married toJohn Turner, briefly prime minister in 1984.[28][29] The brothers-in-law served jointly in the33rd and34th Canadian Parliaments.
Throughout his parliamentary career, Kilgour has been awarded a wide range of awards, including: the Kaputiman Award from the Council of EdmontonFilipino Associations; the Special Award from theUkrainian Canadian Congress (Alberta Provincial Council); an Outstanding Service Award from the EdmontonSikh community; the Religious Liberty Award from the International Religious Liberty Association in Washington, D.C.,Liberty Magazine and theSeventh-day Adventist Church; and as Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Soviet Jewry, he was recognized byB'nai Brith Canada for his effort and commitment to bringing the plight of the Soviet Jewry to the attention of Canadians.[30][non-primary source needed]
In May 2006, he received an honoraryDoctor of Divinity (D.D.(Hon)) degree fromKnox College, University of Toronto.[31] Kilgour, aPresbyterian, was recognized for his commitment to human rights in Canada and abroad and particularly his challenge to the international community to respond to the plight of Darfur, as well as in Burma, and Zimbabwe.For theirorgan harvesting work, Matas and Kilgour won the 2009 Human Rights Award from the German-basedInternational Society for Human Rights and were nominated for the2010 Nobel Peace Prize.[12]
He is the brother ofGeills Turner, widow of former Canadian Prime MinisterJohn Turner. Kilgour and his sister are the great nephew and niece ofJohn McCrae, the soldier and poet who wroteIn Flanders Fields, and also the great nephew and niece ofJohn Wentworth Russell, who painted the portrait of SirWilfrid Laurier, which hangs in the House of Commons.[citation needed]
He appeared inRed Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (2013),[32]Davids and Goliath (2014),[33] and was interviewed inFree China: The Courage to Believe. He also has a brief appearance in the 2012 documentary filmDeath by China.[non-primary source needed]
| 26th Canadian Ministry (1993–2003) – Cabinet ofJean Chrétien | ||
| Sub-Cabinet Posts (2) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Predecessor | Title | Successor |
| Rey Pagtakhan | Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) (2002–2003) | |
| Christine Stewart | Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa) (1997–2002) | Denis Paradis |
