By Lloyd Mackey

Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from Uganda, from Jean Chamberlain Froese, executive director of Save the Mothers. She was following up on my mention, in last week's OttawaWatch, about what STM is doing in Uganda and Yemen. Her comment focused on the Canadian maternal-and-child-care initiative, proposed for exploration by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at this summer's G-8 in the Muskoka.

Here are Chamberlain Froese's comments:

"It truly is amazing how little most Canadians know or understand about the issue of maternal mortality in the developing world. We really appreciate you highlighting it and bringing the plight of mothers and their children to the view of the average Canadian.

"I read Jack Layton's comments about the state of aboriginal women and children in Canada. Clearly, there is a wide divide between their access to care and that of the average Canadian. But having spent time in the Sioux Lookout (Ontario) as well as in rural Africa, (I would submit) there is a chasm of difference between the care given for a woman in rural Uganda as compared to even the poorest Canadian.

"Everyone agrees that more needs to be done for aboriginal women and their health, with a focus on bringing solutions from within their community (e.g. training aboriginal skilled midwives who are culturally sensitive to mothers in their community). But in the bigger picture of things, I think the statistics say it all: Canada and Uganda have approximately the same population -- with Canada losing about 10-12 mothers across the nation annually, while Uganda looses 6,000 mothers. [That] is staggering!

"Yes, let's improve women's health across Canada, especially for marginalized peoples. But let's not lose the wider picture of genuinely caring and moving to action for the vulnerable (women and children) in our global village."

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And, speaking of international aid and development (an envelope into which the maternal and child care issue fits nicely), it was a useful exercise, last week, to sit in on a Roundtable on that topic, hosted by the Liberal opposition.

It was one of several events staged by the official opposition to highlight that their MPs were "hard at work" even though Parliament is prorogued until March 3.

Roundtables have always been tools used by politicians to explore a range of issues in a timely fashion, without either the constraints or the latitudes available in regular parliamentary committees. Roundtables are meetings in which politicians, usually from all parties, explore serious issues with the assistance of experts or community representatives who can bring outside perspectives.

The constraints which limit a parliamentary committee involve the fact that usually, such a body is dealing with amendments to a specific piece of legislation or investigating a particular dysfunction of government.

The latitudes relate to the fact that a parliamentary committee may hear allegations or accusations from witnesses or politicians who are protected by immunity from the laws of libel and slander that prevail outside of Parliament.

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So a Roundtable has a certain calm and sense of reflection to it that does not prevail when the heat is on in committee debate. The number of people attending this particular event was too great to literally put everyone into a seat around a table. However, calling it such did help create an ambience that tended to set both hosts and guests at ease.

The international development Roundtable was jointly chaired by John McKay and Glen Pearson, Toronto and London area Liberal MPs, respectively. Both are deeply involved in international development issues, both faith-related and of a more secular nature.

They reported to the gathering of about 150, that the attending relief and development agencies represented outnumbered the MPs and Senators at least 3 to 1.

About three feet away from your humble scribe, separated by a narrow aisle, was Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, writing notes into a small leather-bound book -- using, as near as I could tell, a fountain pen. Somewhere near the front of the room was Kady O'Malley of CBC Online, live blogging the event on her Blackberry. O'Malley (www.cbc.ca/politics) has become a familiar figure at many of the committees and smaller meetings around The Hill.

Among the faith-based groups ready to speak to the event were World Vision (WV), the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the Mennonite Central Committee.

I will wrap, today, with a point made by one of the critics of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), who was offering some advice on how the government could improve development awareness among Canadians. World Vision, she said, spends several times the amount of money to raise such awareness as does CIDA.

She indicated, of course, that WV must spend proportionately on awareness, because such awareness is critical to its fund-raising efforts. CIDA's interest in developing awareness is not so critical because the funds it uses to match groups like WV come from the taxpayer, not from the voluntary donor.

As one who tries to understand the role of advertising and good communication in the service of good works and compassion, I took her point quickly. More significantly, perhaps, the politicians were taking note of that fact.

While the Roundtables were good exposure for the Liberals, it was likely true that members of the other three parties were taking note as well. While there were, as far as I could tell, no government MPs present, there were, at times, a small scattering of staffers from other than the official opposition party. Undoubtedly, one of the benefits of a proroguing of Parliament is that politicians will avoid the task of careful listening, to their peril.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

February 11/2010