Pro-life MP snatches victory from the jaws of defeat
OTTAWA, ON—BC Conservative MP Mark Warawa says he has "peace" about the failure of his motion condemning sex-selective abortion to even come to a vote in the House of Commons, despite his initial hopes it would pass with no one opposed.
"I had a strategy to raise awareness, and it quickly was put to the side," Warawa says. "If it would have passed unanimously, the awareness of the issue would not have been raised to the extent that it was. So I'm very pleased. God's plan was much better than mine."
In the end, this all-party attempt to silence him actually ended up allowing backbench MPs more freedom to defy their party leaders and be heard.
Warawa had introduced M-408 as a way to alert Canadians to the global crisis in which unborn children are aborted solely because they are female, and to condemn its practice in Canada. He framed the issue solely as gender discrimination. And yet all the parties united to block it for fear that it would reopen the debate over abortion.
After a committee deemed the motion "non-votable," Warawa withdrew it. Instead he and other Conservative MPs complained to House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was muzzling them.
In April, Scheer ruled he would recognize some MPs, even if their names were not on the list of speakers each party provides him.
"That's the real issue," says Trinity Western political studies professor John Dyck. "We've developed a system of party discipline to the point where it has stifled any ability for MPs to actually speak their mind on anything.
"I laud Mark for having brought this forward in a way which is starting to open up a hole in that armour of party discipline."
The news coverage given this so-called "backbench rebellion" also helped raise awareness of sex-selective abortion. This in turn became a rallying cry for this year's March for Life, which drew close to 20,000 people to Parliament Hill, including 21 Conservative MPs.
On that same day, Warawa read a statement in the Commons condemning sex-selective abortion. "The statement 'It's a girl' should not be a death sentence," he said.
Mike Schouten with WeneedaLAW.ca says these outcomes "provide energy and encouragement for the pro-life movement." He also hopes it sends Harper a message.
"For many, many years, socially conservative Canadians have been taken for granted," he says. "They've been willing to do the grunt work, get the votes out, volunteer, etc., through successive minority governments. Now we're halfway through a majority government, and they're saying, 'Enough is enough. You need to reckon with us.'"
"The number one responsibility of a Member of Parliament is to represent their constituents—and that's exactly what I did," Warawa says. "So if anybody tried to punish me for that, I'm sure the voters would not appreciate that at all."
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