A Leap of Faith

The world is wending its way to South Africa.  "May his long walk to freedom be enjoyed and realized in our time by all of us", worshippers murmured, praying at the St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town. The very place where in the mid-1600s Dutch migrants arrived in South Africa to begin a long history of settling on the land, feeling entitled to a disequilibrium of superiority over the indigenous population; convinced that they were civilized and the original people of the land were not.

Over fifty heads of state are expected to take part in a massive memorial in tribute to a giant among men, who calculated that respect and acceptance from one side would ultimately engender a like return from the other. Who, when he had acquired the power of vengeance, disclaimed its wretchedness, and chose instead accommodation and the rejection of anger and resentment.

His, in the final analysis, represented a great leap of faith in humanity's potential.

Canada's delegation is large and multi-representational, with all its political parties present and accounted for at various governmental levels. Not least that of the aboriginal community, the message there fitting and not entirely subtle, as need not be. Among Canada's representatives are those fully vested in racial harmony and social justice. From former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney whose rejection of apartheid brought the West to the realization that justice must prevail, to Canada's first black Haitian-born governor-general.

"To see representatives of all political families together going to South Africa to pay tribute to Mandela is totally in the spirit of the man, so I'm proud of us", said Michaelle Jean.  A Liberal Member of Parliament who represented Nelson Mandela legally, as a human rights lawyer of international repute, Irwin Cotler, is also present. As is Alison Redford, premier of Alberta who as a constitutional and legal form lawyer worked in the early 1990s to rebuild South Africa's legal system.

The sole caution here is a concern. That so many Canadian luminaries descended from the skies on South Africa for its most solemn yet joyful dedication to a man of great distinction who led his country to a better place, and left it while it still struggles to achieve that better place, have placed themselves in a potentially vulnerable situation. Should anything untoward have occurred during that flight, or the return back to Canada, this country would be in a shocking state of irreversible sorrow.

One would hate to think of that planeload of Canadian luminaries as temping fate while toasting fortune.