David Kilgour

Kilgour worked between 1941 and 2022 across lawyer, politician, jurist, writer and human rights defender and 1 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 5 published texts and 9 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

David Kilgour studied at University of Manitoba, Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law and St. John's-Ravenscourt School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is law and politics. Places of work recorded in the authority are Ottawa. Positions recorded include member of the House of Commons of Canada.

• Honorific Prefix — The Honourable • Name — David Kilgour • Office — Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) • Prime Minister — Jean Chrétien • Minister — Bill Graham • Term Start — January 15, 2002 • Term End — December 12, 2003 • Predecessor — Rey Pagtakhan • Successor — Position abolished • Office1 — Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa) • Prime Minister1 — Jean Chrétien • Minister1 — Lloyd Axworthy John Manley • Term Start1 — June 11, 1997 • Term End1 — January 14, 2002 • Predecessor1 — Christine Stewart • Successor1 — Denis Paradis • Office2 — Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada Chairman of Committees of the Whole • 1blankname2 — Speaker • 1namedata2 — Gilbert Parent • Term Start2 — January 18, 1994 • Term End2 — April 27, 1997 • Predecessor2 — Andrée Champagne (1993) • Successor2 — Peter Milliken • Parliament3 — Canadian • Riding3 — Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont (Edmonton–Beaumont; 2004) (Edmonton Southeast; 1988–2004) (Edmonton—Strathcona; 1979–1988) • Term Start3 — May 22, 1979 • Term End3 — January 23, 2006 • Predecessor3 — Douglas Roche • Successor3 — Mike Lake • Birth Name — David William Kilgour • Born — 18 February 1941 • Birthplace — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Died — 5 April 2022 • Place of death — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Alma Mater — University of Manitoba University of Toronto Faculty of Law • Occupation — * Politician • lawyer • author • Party — Independent (2005–2006) • Other Party — Progressive Conservative (1979–1990) Liberal (1990–2005) • Relatives — Geills Turner (sister)

Kilgour unsuccessfully sought election in 1968 in the riding of Vancouver Centre as a Progressive Conservative. He ran again in the 1979 election, winning a seat in Edmonton. He went on to serve as a Member of Parliament for about 27 years. During his 27-year tenure, he crossed the floor two times, sitting first as a Conservative, then as an independent, and finally as a Liberal. In the Conservative governments of Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney he served as parliamentary secretary to the president of the Privy Council, the Minister for CIDA, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and the Minister of Transport. In April 1990, he was expelled from the Tory national caucus after criticizing Mulroney's government's policies. He sat as an independent for several months, before joining the Liberals. In the Liberal government, he served as the Deputy Speaker (1993–1997) and Chairman of Committees of the Whole of the House of Commons, Secretary of state (Latin America and Africa) (1997–2002), and Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) (2002–2003). As a Secretary of state, Kilgour was vocal on many human rights violations around the world. In 2001 while visiting Zimbabwe, Kilgour was vocally critical of Robert Mugabe's farm-invasions policy and pushed for increasing international pressure. In December 2004, he was among the Ukrainian election monitor delegation of the federal run-off elections. In April 2005, he received media attention when he speculated about quitting the Liberal Party because of his disgust with the sponsorship scandal, saying that the issue made Canada look like "a northern banana republic". On April 12, 2005, he announced that he would sit as an independent MP. He also cited Canada's lack of action on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, as reasons for quitting. He asserted that he had no plans to either join the reorganized Conservative Party of Canada or to run for re-election. From 1979 to 1988, he represented the riding of Edmonton Strathcona, but with shifting constituency lines moved to Edmonton Southeast in 1988, and then again to Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont in 2004, which he represented until he retired from politics at the 2006 election. Because of the unusual structure of the 38th House of Commons, in May 2005, David Kilgour's lone vote had the power to bring down or support the government. He used this influence to urge the Martin government to send peacekeepers to Darfur. He was an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network. Prime Minister Paul Martin agreed to send humanitarian support but in the end, no peacekeepers were sent.

As a Conservative, Kilgour was elected in the riding of Edmonton Strathcona in 1979, 1980, and 1984, and in Edmonton Southeast in 1988. After switching to the Liberals, he was elected in 1993, 1997, and 2000, and in Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont in 2004.

While being a lifelong practicing Christian, Kilgour worked on issues such as inter-faith dialog, personal freedoms, and democratic government throughout his career. In Parliament, he was active in prayer groups while at venues and publications across the country he has spoken specifically on religious themes and politics. Commonly, his topics have been on global religious and political persecutions. He served as a fellow of the Queen's University Centre for the Study of Democracy; a director of the Washington-based Council for a Community of Democracies (CCD), and co-chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran, and hosted an Iran pro-democracy rally attended by approximately 90,000 in France in 2009. His personal religious beliefs landed him in the news in 2003 when he abstained from the same-sex marriage bill and was reprimanded by then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry. With David Matas he released the Kilgour-Matas report, which stated "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and "we believe that there have been and continue today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners". In 2009, they published an updated version of the report as a book. They traveled to about 50 countries to raise awareness of the situation. In 2012, State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China, edited by David Matas and Dr. Torsten Trey, was published with essays from six medical professionals, Ethan Gutmann, David Matas and an essay co-written by Kilgour. Ethan Gutmann interviewed over 100 witnesses and estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008.

Kilgour was married to Laura Scott, with whom he had five children. He died on April 5, 2022, in Ottawa at the age of 81, from lung disease. Kilgour's older sister Geills was married to John Turner, briefly prime minister in 1984. The brothers-in-law served jointly in the 33rd and 34th Canadian Parliaments.

• Organ Pillaging from Falun Gong in China Subcommittee on Human Rights of European Parliament, Brussels, December 1, 2009

Throughout his parliamentary career, Kilgour has been awarded a wide range of awards, including: the Kaputiman Award from the Council of Edmonton Filipino Associations; the Special Award from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Alberta Provincial Council); an Outstanding Service Award from the Edmonton Sikh community; the Religious Liberty Award from the International Religious Liberty Association in Washington, D.C., Liberty Magazine and the Seventh-day Adventist Church; and as Chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Soviet Jewry, he was recognized by B'nai Brith Canada for his effort and commitment to bringing the plight of the Soviet Jewry to the attention of Canadians. In May 2006, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.(Hon)) degree from Knox College, University of Toronto. Kilgour, a Presbyterian, was recognized for his commitment to human rights in Canada and abroad and particularly his challenge to the international community to respond to the plight of Darfur, as well as in Burma, and Zimbabwe. For their organ harvesting work, Matas and Kilgour won the 2009 Human Rights Award from the German-based International Society for Human Rights and were nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

He is the brother of Geills Turner, widow of former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner. Kilgour and his sister are the great nephew and niece of John McCrae, the soldier and poet who wrote In Flanders Fields, and also the great nephew and niece of John Wentworth Russell, who painted the portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, which hangs in the House of Commons.

He appeared in Red Reign: The Bloody Harvest of China's Prisoners (2013), Davids and Goliath (2014), and was interviewed in Free China: The Courage to Believe. He also has a brief appearance in the 2012 documentary film Death by China.

David Kilgour was born on 18 February 1941 in Winnipeg.

• Uneasy patriots: Western Canadians in confederation (1988) • Inside Outer Canada (1990) • Betrayal: The spy Canada abandoned (1994) • Uneasy Neighbours: Canada, The USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry and Culture (2007) with David T. Jones • Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs (2009) with David Matas