Iqwinder Gaheer, Mississauga—Malton
“I want to congratulate Justice Navi Pillay for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. She spent her life fighting apartheid, protecting prisoners' rights, and defending human rights around the world.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour an extraordinary individual. Navi Pillay was born in Durban, the daughter of a bus driver. In a country that told her where she could sit, where she could study and who she could be, she became a lawyer anyway. She defended those who dared to resist apartheid. She secured basic rights for prisoners on Robben Island. Eventually, as a judge, she helped establish that mass rape can be an act of genocide. She stood up for human dignity as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She spent her life insisting that justice is not a gift from the powerful but a promise to the powerless. Today, at 85, she is a Nobel laureate. Her life shows us that justice does not advance on its own. It advances because someone is willing to carry it year after year into rooms where it is often not welcome. I congratulate Justice Pillay.”
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour an extraordinary individual. Navi Pillay was born in Durban, the daughter of a bus driver. In a country that told her where she could sit, where she could study and who she could be, she became a lawyer anyway. She defended those who dared to resist apartheid. She secured basic rights for prisoners on Robben Island. Eventually, as a judge, she helped establish that mass rape can be an act of genocide. She stood up for human dignity as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She spent her life insisting that justice is not a gift from the powerful but a promise to the powerless. Today, at 85, she is a Nobel laureate. Her life shows us that justice does not advance on its own. It advances because someone is willing to carry it year after year into rooms where it is often not welcome. I congratulate Justice Pillay.