View From the Legislature

Last week I was able to attend two meetings on behalf of the Manitoba PC Party that left me both inspired and challenged.

The first was a meeting with Manli Ho whose father was credited with saving the lives of thousands of Jewish people living in the country of Austria during the time of the Second World War. At that time, between 1938 and 1940, Manli’s father, Dr. Fengshan Ho, was the Chinese consul to Austria. After Hitler’s army conquered Austria in March of 1938 many Austrian Jews were sent to Nazi concentration camps.

At great personal risk, and without authorization by the Chinese government, Dr. Fengshan issued literally thousands of visas to Jews trying to get out of Austria. The visas were for entry into Shanghai. While most of the Jewish people who received these visas did not stay in Shanghai, it was their ticket out of Nazi controlled territory which in turn provided them the opportunity to find a permanent place where they would be free from Hitler’s murderous regime.

While Manli’s father never spoke very much about his actions as a Chinese diplomat, she has dedicated recent years to learning about how he risked his own safety to try to help others. She has been able to meet some of those who owe their lives to the bravery of her father and now speaks to students and other organizations sharing his story and inspiring others to stand up to acts of persecution and bullying. It was truly an honour to meet Manli and to learn about her father’s life.

Also last week came a challenge from a delegation from the country of Myanmar (often referred to as Burma). This delegation, which was led by local resident Dr. James Humphries, spoke to me of the human atrocities that are happening in Myanmar and specifically in the state of Kachin.

Despite some recent reforms in Myanmar, it was reported that the country is still very much controlled by military power. The people of Kachin, despite living in an area that is rich in natural resources such as gold, copper, jade, oil and natural gas, are among the poorest people in the world. Many of their resources are taken by neighboring China in exchange for weapons and little is given to the Kachin people.

Most of the freedoms that we enjoy in Canada today are unknown to Myanmar and to the Kachin people. There are hundreds of political prisoners. Religious freedom is tightly controlled. There is no right to assemble as the military forbids gathering in groups of more than 3 to 5 people.  There are literally thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) as a result of indiscriminate shelling, the burning of villages, and human atrocities.

These two meetings last week left me inspired and challenged. The story of Dr. Fengshan demonstrates the greatness of individual humanity, which often happens quietly and goes unnoticed for years, if ever at all. But the message from those in Myanmar is that there are human atrocities taking place still today and there is a need to speak out and shed light on them.