Jody Wilson-Raybould is on the campaign trail with a new book and no party
Credit to Author: Dana Gee| Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 18:18:22 +0000
Let’s just get it out of the way, former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould will be writing a memoir.
But no, she won’t be releasing it a few days before the Oct. 21 federal election.
“I’m not going to throw a bomb unless a bomb is to work really hard and work on behalf of your constituents, then maybe,” said Wilson-Raybould when asked if she would use the SNC-Lavalin affair to deliver a blow to her former boss, Justin Trudeau, and the Liberal party.
While there is no timeline yet for the impending memoir, Wilson-Raybould admits she has had it on her mind for a while now.
“I have lots of notebooks and I have been writing about my experiences,” added the former Liberal cabinet member and We Wai Kai Nation member. “From what I can tell, people are interested in it, so I will write a memoir at some point.”
Oh yes, people are interested.
In the meantime, Wilson-Raybould has released From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada. It doesn’t include any deep dives, it’s more a matter of Wilson-Raybould dipping a toe into the SNC-Lavalin affair that saw her resign on principle from cabinet in February. Two months later she, along with MP Jane Philpott, was ejected from the Liberal caucus.
The book instead is made up of an extensive introduction followed by a series of speeches she has given over the years. The opening speech is a keynote to the Western Canada Aboriginal Law Forum in May of 2010. The book closes with her speaking at a Feminists Deliver event in June of 2019.
Driving those speeches is the theme of reconciliation, including the understanding of how we got to where we are on Indigenous issues as well as ideas on structured, sensitive and, most importantly, viable paths forward to ensure true reconciliation. She says the Liberal government could have done more to advance reconciliation.
Wilson-Raybould, who was the first Indigenous person to be attorney general, asks the citizenry (including government, Indigenous leaders and the public) to help continue to move reconciliation forward.
“I envision 10 years from now we will have taken bold leadership and created the mechanisms to transform Indigenous nations or to create the space for Indigenous nations to be self-determining, including self-governing,” said Wilson-Raybould.
Wilson-Raybould grew up in Port Hardy and Comox. Her Kwak’wala name is Puglaas, which roughly translates to “woman born to noble people.” Her father is Bill Wilson, a First Nations hereditary chief, politician, and lawyer. Wilson-Raybould is a former crown prosecutor and she was Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations for B.C. (2009-2015) before entering federal politics and becoming a star candidate for the Liberals in 2015.
However, that all changed when news broke that the PMO had allegedly attempted to influence Wilson-Raybould in regards to the ongoing prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. After appearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Wilson-Raybould became a household name — and a major thorn in the side of the prime minister.
Vancouver Granville independent candidate Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Now, here we are month away from a federal election and Wilson-Raybould — who was stripped of her Liberal party nomination for the 2019 federal election — is promoting a book and running to retain her Vancouver-Granville riding. The Liberals have thrown their weight and money behind candidate Taleeb Noormohamed.
“It was a difficult period of time for almost a year now. I think though through life, and this reality I have lived through, you learn lessons,” said Wilson-Raybould, who was also briefly the veterans affairs minister.
“People don’t bring up the specific facts of that company in Quebec (SNC Lavalin) but they bring it up to me and are having discussions of the very nature of our democracy. It is so surprising, but so welcoming, to have people talk about the importance of the rule of law and why we are so fortunate to live in a country like this because we have the rule of law and we uphold it.
“I think that everything happens for a reason. Now I am running as an independent and I’m in the place that I should be,” added Wilson-Raybould. “The fact that people have learned similar lessons and have that greater awareness of what they want from politics, or that they want to have politicians make decisions on what’s important in terms of the issues versus what’s important in terms of political expediency or power is why I got involved in politics in the first place to actually — and it’s an over used phrase — do politics differently.
“It really has emboldened me.”
Vancouver Granville is easily going to be one of the most-watched races in B.C. And maybe even the country. Wilson-Raybould says she is feeling good and more importantly feeling the support.
The idea of Wilson-Raybould running as an independent raises some red flags for people, most importantly will her voice be heard over a chorus of party-backed and party-line towing MPs?
“I’m in the right place at this time,” said Wilson-Raybould. “I have always advocated my own views, beliefs and principals. I’m not tied to or told what to say which I think is the extremely positive element of being an independent. Less partisanship is what I hear all the time. People actually just want to talk about issues.”
Wilson-Raybould wants to, and hopes her constituents and the rest of the country can take a minute and look at her and her campaign as a way forward, a way to begin to loosen up the partisan political party lines that many believe have tied up our democratic system.
What we need politicians in Ottawa, actually anywhere for that matter, to do says Wilson-Raybould is to take a page from the Indigenous people’s playbook.
“I found and learned that Ottawa could take some lessons in terms of decision-making from the culture that I come from,” said Wilson-Raybould. “All voices are important. That’s the culture I come from. You have to raise people up to fulfil their roles and if you don’t do that there is something taken away from the strength of the community. People might roll their eyes when I say something like that and it might sound airy-fairy or naive but in my view it’s not. My culture has survived for millennia.
“I am not saying parliament is going to change overnight and we’re all going to function by way of consensus, but at least moving in that direction or recognizing that we are never going to resolve issues like climate change or Indigenous reconciliation unless we come together and have bold plans and understand in having bold plans they have to live beyond the life of one government in order to be sustainable in order to actual address the issue.”
In the first line of the intro for the new book, Wilson-Raybould says: “A central lesson instilled in me from a very young age was to be careful with words because you cannot take them back — you must always speak the truth.”
When you bring up the idea that, for many people, trusting the words of a politician has gone the way of straw boaters hats and stages covered in bunting, Wilson-Raybould pauses for a second and let’s out a bit of a sigh.
“It makes me kind of sad but I understand the reality we live in. This cynicism about politics and politicians is something that is hugely problematic for our democracy,” said Wilson-Raybould. “We need to change the culture or the nature of our politics to know that when we say something — that it has to mean something.
“For me it comes from my culture being an oral culture. And if we don’t speak the truth, the culture dies,” added Wilson-Raybould. “People should be more careful with what they say.”
Speaking of what people are going to say, one has to wonder whether the Liberals will go after Wilson-Raybould in October or keep their heads down in hopes of keeping talk of SNC-Lavalin out of the campaign.
“I can’t put myself in the position of other candidates or parties,” Wilson-Raybould said. “I am hopeful that we can look at issues that are issues we all have to address like Indigenous issues and focus on them as opposed to focusing on individuals or trying to undermine the credibility of individuals. I’ve faced that now for over eight months and I think that is very unfair and very debilitating and focusing energy where it shouldn’t be.”
Even though eight months or so have passed since the country was glued to the SNC-Lavalin story, Wilson-Raybould reluctantly — she doesn’t want to seem “self-serving” — admits she draws a lot of attention when she is out pounding the pavement in her riding.
“Sometimes people just burst into tears. It’s not about me. It’s what I represented in that, if you believe in something, then you stick to it. You speak your truth without any fear of repercussions,” said Wilson-Raybould.
However repercussions are a very real thing and politics is a dirty business. But rather than waiting and worrying about what may get lobbed her way, she is looking ahead and trying to be a good example to those who may follow her into the political arena.
“I can inspire people to understand what my grandmother taught me, which was if you have a dream, if you are passionate about something and you work hard you can accomplish anything,” said Wilson-Raybould. “If there’s a message to any little Indian girl in any corner of this great country or beyond, it is to know you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to if you work hard.”