On Tuesday, I learned that my hero, Svend Robinson, has been appointed as the new J. S. Woodsworth Resident Scholar for the 2020–21 academic year at Simon Fraser University.
It’s such a fitting appointment: James S. Woodsworth was a pioneer of Canada’s progressive social movement. A Member of Parliament and a founder of the social-democratic Canadian Commonwealth Federation, or CCF party — the forerunner of the NDP, Woodsworth was devoted to social justice, peace and equality.
But let me tell you why Svend has been my hero for many decades.
Svend is a true progressive and a real trail blazer. He was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Burnaby when he was only 27! From that point on he was, by far, the most effective and hard-working MP for over 25 years.
When President Ronald Reagan addressed the House of Commons in 1987, I was so proud of Svend, who loudly heckled him for America’s Star Wars program, which was aimed at destroying missiles in space.
When the late Sue Rodriguez was dying from ALS, she applied to the courts for the right to die with dignity. In 1992, her case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which, tragically was not yet ready to grant her a medically assisted death.
Ms. Rodriguez lost her court challenge, but Svend immediately came to her assistance. We will never know the exact details, but he was instrumental in helping her access a medically assisted death, according to her wishes.
I admire Svend for his willingness to not only stand up for what he believes in, but to literally put his liberty and what might be seen as “traditional” party loyalty on the line.
In the early 1990s, timber barons were clearcutting large tracts of old-growth forests throughout BC, particularly in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island. Svend has always been a stalwart NDP member, and in spite of the fact that we had an NDP provincial government at the time, he didn’t hesitate to join thousands of other protestors engaging in civil disobedience and blocking logging roads to protect the few remaining old-growth trees.
It wasn’t his first anti-logging protest, but this time Svend was arrested, criminally charged, convicted and sentenced to a jail term. As far as I know, he remains the only MP in the history of Canada to be imprisoned for defending the environment.
Svend was the first openly gay Member of Parliament. Prior to him coming out, there had been many, many gay and lesbian MPs, but none with the courage or conviction to say so publicly and change the way Canadians regard that community.
Svend ran for the leadership of the federal NDP in 1995 and came oh-so-close to winning. Had he become party leader, I have no doubt he would have decisively transformed the party by championing issues that, so often, the federal NDP is too conservative to embrace. For instance, Svend has never once hesitated to come to the defence of Indigenous Peoples, the Cuban Revolution or Palestinian rights.
Svend comes from the mould of genuine socialist leaders. I’m thinking of progressives like Tommy Douglas, best known for bringing universal Medicare to Canadians; the former leader of the UK’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, who persistently faced phoney leftists within his own party; and America’s Bernie Saunders, who ran twice for the Democratic nomination for president and, by doing so, made the party much more progressive.
This appointment couldn’t be better timed. SFU — and the wider community — will be much richer with the addition of Svend Robinson and his mindboggling high energy, intellectual depth, and principled politics.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (Jul. 7, 2020): 415.28 ppm
One year ago (Jul. 7, 2019): 413.15 ppm
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I was at UBC at the same time when Sevend Robinson was there. Your article bring back many memories. Svend has his picture in the UBC 100 years book. However he never understood Transit.
Other students from the 1970s admit now that i was right back than.
Its a long fight that will take more time especially in Metro Vancouver where we had six changes of Transit Governance and operations in 60 years.
Hi Nathan! You were always better informed and far more knowledgable about transit way back when you and I used to be in touch in the early 2000s. I am sad to say that most of the board members on bodies like Translink or the GVRD do not even make an effort to understand transit issues. They just rubber-stamp the staff recommendations in reports without even reading the report itself.
Too bad you have never been appointed to the Translink.