Tribute To A Champion

The bluster vanished in the House of Commons in an instant yesterday.  When Irwin Cotler stood up in the fourth slot in Question Period and challenged the government once again to bring Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik home from years of exile in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum, we waited for the predictable response.  After all, this was old ground, covered repeatedly over the last months since both CSIS and the RCMP said they found no fault in the man.Charged once again with responding, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson stood in his place and said simply: "The government will comply with the court order," and then sat down. For an instant it was almost like you could hear a whooshing sound in the place, then many of us stood up and applauded in total shock.That incredulity was fully justified. Each time something new came out in the last few months about Mr. Abdelrazik's case, it always landed in his favour: the RCMP and CSIS admissions, the government's initial approval for allowing him to return (troublingly denied a short while later), Sudan's admission that they had been asked by Canada to detain him but could find no charges to lay against him, and finally a couple of weeks ago when a judge ordered Nicholson to bring him home. Each and every time the Harper government denied the evidence and kept him in exile. In his simple statement yesterday, Nicholson had to acknowledge that the rule of law trumps suspicious morality and that the rights of citizenship do indeed carry beyond borders.Mr. Abdelrazik's return is due to so many individuals fighting what seemed to be a lost cause.  I can say that, in Parliament, Irwin Cotler was a lion in the exile's defense, rising repeatedly in the house, faced by countless heckles from the Conservatives, and holding true to the belief that law is law and that you can't keep a Canadian citizen interned when there is no evidentiary base for such a practice. I have a high respect for Irwin's abilities and I believe that last night he slept like a baby - deservedly so.Joanne Deschamps from the Bloc deserves full credit for marshaling her party's response and reminding everyone in the House that the Bloc have been pathfinders in the realm of human rights and that they need not take a back seat to any party on that issue.But the one person who stuck on this file and deserves full praise for the victory yesterday was the NDP's Paul Dewar. Simply put, I found him indefatigable in the cause of justice for Abdelrazik. And I speak from personal experience, as we both sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee.  Against all odds, Dewar exhausted every parliamentarian option, time after time, not just in an attempt to exonerate an innocent citizen, but to prove that the Canadian parliament could be relevant in such a case. I watched as the government members of the committee fought him vociferously. But he worked the system  - very well. In key votes on the case, the three opposition parties worked together and won by one vote each time, Paul's example being the key cause. I witnessed the discouragement on his face every time as the government refused to abide by the will of the committee on this. I would even text him on his Blackberry during committee in an attempt to keep him assured.  The hardest day came only three weeks ago, when the Foreign Affairs Minister pointed his finger in anger at Dewar over the issue, in a manner that was beneath the conduct of someone in such an exalted position.Four very important things happened yesterday. Above all, a innocent exile is coming home to his family. Second, the opposition members weren't so much a coalition as a combined group of individuals who believe in human rights, defending the ultimate rule of law over unprovable suspicion. Third, Parliament worked yesterday in a way that surprised all of us and ultimately prevailed. And finally, one man who believed in the system achieved his own freedom. A very able parliamentarian who had been plagued by rancor and repeated defeats proved to all of us, and himself, that a public servant dedicated to our freedoms can be shining light that leads us into a better future.  Well done Paul. I love this kind of politics and you deserve the kind of summer reserved for champions.