C-311, The good, the bad and the ugly

We had the honour of interviewing Cathay Wagantall on Bill C-311 and the impact it's had on politics and the community.

Transcript

[Music] hi everybody it's Chris byrick the director of the national House of Prayer and we are here today in the office of Kathy wagendal the member from Yorkton Millville Saskatchewan one of our favorite places in the nation anyway today we're going to talk to Kathy about her bill c-11 it went through the house yesterday did not pass but we're still going to talk about the good things so Kathy tell us the good things well first of all it was a real privilege to be able to present c311 in the house um the work to do that was significant I'll be honest with you it was a very important issue to my heart because of the relationships I've built with individuals who are victims of this

where a pregnant woman has been assaulted and either injured or killed so um really wanted it to pass of course and so kept it exactly what I had heard back from various organizations and people about how it could be formulated in a way that could be supported so went ahead with that and of course the speeches the support from within my caucus was wonderful however right away there was a clear indication that it wasn't going to be supported by the other parties and specifically especially the liberal government so that was all part of the Dynamics but what I noticed right away that one of the first things that they did uh their leader the Prime Minister as well as a

number of members is did a Twitter campaign uh associating it with abortion and so you know they were very adamant that they were the supporters of women and their rights and all of this type of thing but what amazed me and a lot of times people don't realize this yes you're going to see certain things but make sure you do take the time especially with an issue that is this divisive to check the comments out that's right and so I was incredibly excited to see that right across the country just a Groundswell of people that I don't know at all chose to contradict their perspective and say what are you doing here this is so simple so clear why are you conflating it uh and and misrepresenting

it so that was very encouraging and then of course when it was voted on in the house the typical response in the media and generally is the bill failed yeah I knew that it was it would be a phenomenal miracle if it was to pass in the house but that's not the only reason you bring these these things forward and I knew that presenting it was important and as a result we have a situation where my entire caucus and my leader supported it which honestly is not easy to do that's you know always come from all across the country from different regions different challenges and so we work in our party really hard to come to a consensus and then go from there together and that's what happened and

I'm incredibly grateful for that and then also the Groundswell of responses across Canada yeah Canadians was remarkable and so I think it's it's important to realize that and for Jeff too Jeff Durham who was there for the final debate and the vote who lost Cassie and Molly uh you know that was eight years ago and this is still on his heart in his mind he was encouraged and so um you know we have a lot to be grateful for and and uh it was an honor to bring It Forward wow well thank you Kathy for sharing there's a lot of uh a lot of good even though sometimes we don't win a battle but we're still in the war and we're still fighting and we're still fighting for for freedoms

and what what has been really exciting about this time is that even though the sides don't agree there are others out there that you're not seeing that are maybe whipped into a position voting but there's God is at work at Hearts all across all throughout the house of Collins God is doing things I used to ask this question when I worked in the constituency every day did we move the ball and I think we moved the ball yeah well and what this was was an opera an opportunity for people who have opposing and different opinions to see that this was something we do all agree on which is true and I had that experience in the House of Commons with one of my colleagues being able to work

with Michelle on her article she did a great job at herself which again Drew attention and positive attention to the fact that no we shouldn't be arguing about this from a place that doesn't impact the fact that pregnant women are attacked by an individual who knows that they're pregnant and or causes physical or emotional harm that should be an aggravating circumstance both of those in our in our laws which just simply calls on a judge an individual's already been charged they've gone through our court system they've been found guilty the crime you know the punishment should match the crime yes well thank you for this Kathy thank you I'm Chris piberg this is Kathy wagendal and we'll see you

next time bye for now foreign [Music]