In an extraordinary 24-year career riding Parliament鱿鱼视频app backbenches and chairing committees in government and opposition, McKay has steered legislation through Parliament to make sure Canada鱿鱼视频app foreign aid goes to poor people, helped shape reforms to Parliament giving more voice to individual members and nearly forced a reluctant Conservative government to create a mining, oil and gas ombudsperson with real power to investigate and expose Canadian companies that violate human rights abroad.
Through many years and political battles this Evangelical Christian politician has had a Catholic co-conspirator in the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace-Caritas Canada.
As a wily veteran who has managed to have two private members鈥� bills passed (such bills rarely make it beyond first reading), McKay is now angling to pass a Senate bill (also rarely successful) that would force companies to investigate and publicly report on slave labour in their global supply chains. Plus, he鱿鱼视频app still trying to get his own government to finally make good on its pledge to give the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise genuine investigatory powers, including the ability to demand documents and testimony from Canadian corporate executives.
On the CORE office, McKay frankly compares his own party鱿鱼视频app progress to Leon McQuay鱿鱼视频app infamous fumble in the final two minutes of the 1971 Grey Cup game in which the Toronto Argonauts lost 14-11 to Calgary.
鈥淭he ball got dropped on the 98th yard line,鈥� said the Scarborough MP, who then cautions that 鈥淥nly a few of your readers would actually remember.鈥�
An effective ombudsperson to replace a toothless Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor was promised by the Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats during the 2015 election campaign. It is a bitter disappointment to Development and Peace, which has campaigned on the issue for more than 15 years, that the CORE office finally opened for complaints March 15 yet still doesn鈥檛 have those key investigatory powers.
鈥淭he good news is that (Ombudsperson) Sherri Meyerhoffer is a serious, credible person. The other good news is that she鱿鱼视频app got a serious budget, $3.5 million a year 鈥� which should enable her to do a few things,鈥� McKay said.
McKay hasn鈥檛 given up hope that Meyerhoffer will get the powers she was promised. An April 17 meeting of the subcommittee on international human rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development hashed out the issue and commissioned a staff report. McKay predicts that the report, due in about a month, will recommend powers to compel witnesses and documents.
鈥淭he arguments to the contrary were exposed as what they are, which is pathetic,鈥� McKay said. 鈥淭here is no good argument why you would disembowel your person just as they were about to cross the goal line.鈥�
"(Development and Peace is) trying to make a difference"
鈥淎n effective mechanism to hold Canadian mining, oil and gas companies to account for their human and environmental impacts around the world鈥� ought to be possible, said Development and Peace spokesperson Minaz Kerawala.
If it finally gets done it will largely be a credit to McKay, whose 2009 private member鱿鱼视频app bill, the Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries Act, nearly passed third reading in 2010. Throughout that political battle McKay had the support of Development and Peace campaigning in parishes across the country.
The alliance between McKay and Canada鱿鱼视频app Catholic development agency dates back even further to the Better Aid Bill. That bill, introduced in Parliament in 2006 and finally passed in 2008, became the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act. The act puts into law the principles that Canada鱿鱼视频app official Overseas Development Aid is for the purpose of raising people up out of poverty, that poor people in Asia, Africa and Latin America should themselves be consulted and that the aid budget should line up with international human rights standards.
It also made aid spending much more transparent by requiring the Minister of International Development to report to Parliament on ODA spending.
鈥淭he ODAAA was a major accomplishment,鈥� said Kerawala.
Work on that bill put Development and Peace in McKay鱿鱼视频app orbit. He praises Development and Peace as the kind of NGO that walks the talk.
鈥淭here is the NGO community that are purely advocates and do a good job at that in many instances,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen there are the Development and Peace type of NGOs who not only are advocates, but are also on the ground doing real work and have real experience in real people鱿鱼视频app lives. They are trying to make a difference both directly and less directly through legislation and advocacy.鈥�
McKay鱿鱼视频app interpretations of the art of the possible don鈥檛 always please Development and Peace or its NGO allies. On Bill-216, An Act to Enact the Modern Slavery Act and to Amend the Customs Tariff, Development and Peace and its allies at the Canadian Network on Corporate Responsibility wish McKay鱿鱼视频app bill went further.
鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app absolutely urgent that Canada pass effective accountability mechanisms,鈥� said CNCR co-ordinator Emily Dwyer. 鈥淎 bill that requires you to report on use of slave labour but doesn鈥檛 require you not to use it isn鈥檛 going to change much.鈥�
McKay believes the embarrassment corporations might suffer when forced labour is revealed in mandated supply chain reports will inspire change.
鈥淩eputational damage costs money,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f your shareholders don鈥檛 punish you, your bankers will. And if your bankers don鈥檛 punish you, your customers will. It鱿鱼视频app not insignificant.鈥�
McKay鱿鱼视频app best argument for the bill is simply moral. To make consumers unwittingly complicit in any kind of forced, unfair labour is just wrong. But he isn鈥檛 necessarily relying on morality.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 buy the moral argument, don鈥檛 buy it. If you don鈥檛 buy the human rights argument, don鈥檛 buy that either,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 buy the economic argument that it鱿鱼视频app taking away your neighbour鱿鱼视频app job, you鈥檙e just dumb. You might be taking away your own job. It鱿鱼视频app in our self-interest to make sure we鈥檙e doing right. 鈥� We can鈥檛 compete with slave labour.鈥�
McKay鱿鱼视频app political hero is William Wilberforce, another Evangelical Christian and parliamentarian who didn鈥檛 care about being in cabinet. Wilberforce was invited to join the cabinet of William Pitt the Younger, but declined so he could carry on his 30-year campaign to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. Sitting as an independent, Wilberforce got the Slavery Abolition Act passed in 1833, three days before his death.
鈥淭hat鱿鱼视频app probably the most significant accomplishment of any MP in a British parliamentary system,鈥� said McKay. 鈥淲e talk about faith 鈥� that was really an exercise of faith both on the level of going against all odds and also in terms of your relationship with God.鈥�
McKay鱿鱼视频app success in getting bills passed has more to do with attitude than strategy.
鈥淭he more partisan you are the less influence you have,鈥� he observed. 鈥淚f you want to have a career that is utterly and completely useless, line up as a partisan. You鈥檒l have a good time. You might get yourself on the evening news, or whatever. But you鈥檙e not going to get anything done.鈥�