MP shocked by House of horrors

Liberal rookie Glen Pearson says it's time to speak out on parliamentary bullying.

By Susan Delacourt - Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Glen Pearson, the Liberal MP for London North Centre, is a bit of an expert at helping people in trouble.

He's a firefighter, the founder of the London Food Bank and an on-the-ground volunteer in relief work in Sudan – where he and his wife have opened a school and adopted three orphaned children.

But now, at the one-year anniversary of his surprise win in a federal by-election, Pearson's impatience with injustice is directed much closer to home – in the House of Commons, in fact, and in the depths to which he believes federal politics has sunk.

"I think when I came here I thought, `Okay, you might not be able to get everything done, but we'll treat one another with decency,'" Pearson said in a recent interview.

But decency is in short supply in Ottawa these days, according to Pearson. What's most shocking to this political activist/idealist, though, is the way in which Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion – whom Pearson supported for leader – has been ridiculed and marginalized by his opponents.

Acknowledging that he may seem naïve or partisan, the 56-year-old MP says he's been "stunned" to see behaviour in the federal Parliament that wouldn't be tolerated if it happened in a home, a workplace or even on the playground.

"I don't think this is about bullying, I think it's about abuse," Pearson says. "And when I see that happening in life with people, interventions are required."

He can't believe it's now fair game in politics to cast your opponent as weak or mock his language skills – where else in life would that be allowed? "I've never been in a situation in life in (which) a good person is treated so badly and nobody does anything about it."

Pearson, who's kept a wary, low profile in his first year as an MP, is not known for grandstanding or political gamesmanship. He's not even sure if it's a good idea to do this interview. He'd rather be talking about issues close to his heart, such as African aid. Just a few weeks ago, when he raised the subject of his adopted children in the Commons, he had Conservatives standing and applauding him across the aisle.

But in the past few weeks and months, Pearson says, he's come to believe that he has to stand up and say something about how bad things are in Parliament; how nasty the atmosphere is.

Is he upset enough to consider not running again? Pearson isn't saying anything about that right now. But it's clear that his introduction to the rough and cynical world of federal politics these days has unnerved and disturbed him. He doesn't excuse his own party from the bad behaviour. But he believes the "abusive" tone, as he puts it, is being set from the top, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative cabinet ministers.

The lowest point in the past year for Pearson was when Harper himself hinted that Liberal MP Navdeep Bains might oppose tougher anti-terrorism provisions because one of his in-laws had been among the witnesses in the Air India bombing case two decades ago. The Prime Minister was quoting from a media report that said much the same thing. But Harper's repetition of the slur, directed at one of the few turban-clad MPs in the House, did provoke gasps, not just on the floor of the Commons, but in the spectators' seats as well.

"I was stunned, not so much that it was said in the House, because a lot of things were being said around that time, but that it came from our Prime Minister," Pearson said. He says he only has a vague memory of jumping to his feet in the immediate aftermath and pointing to the door, as a way of telling Harper simply to get out of the Commons. "I haven't felt anger like that in a long time," Pearson says.

Green Leader Elizabeth May, who ran against Pearson for the seat in London North Centre and placed second, says she's not surprised Pearson feels disgusted. "I told him he would," she says. "I said: `Glen, you'll hate it. If you get elected, you'll really hate it. You're far too nice for question period.'"

That said, however, May agrees with his description of the current state of debate as "abuse."

John Godfrey, Liberal MP for Don Valley West and a 14-year veteran of the House, has also been accused in his time of being a little too idealistic and nice for politics. He says he'd advise Pearson to put the Commons rhetoric in perspective.

"It is the theatrical and exaggerated and role-playing aspect of the place. It is just part of the game," Godfrey says.

Pearson, however, is having a hard time seeing this all as theatre. He was on the Commons committee last year that looked into reports of torture on Afghan prisoners. The hearings were taking place at the same time that Conservatives were following the tactics outlined in the now-infamous playbook of filibustering and frustration tactics that was leaked to the media.

Pearson seems genuinely bewildered that any MP would even be thinking of parliamentary tactics while investigating the matter of possible prisoner abuse.

If Pearson does end up staying here, he says, it will be because he finds some glimmer of hope that things could improve.

"I want Parliament to be better. I want it to treat people like we try to treat the average person at our food bank and like the way we try to treat the average Sudanese at the school we opened up," he says.