Prominent Canadian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee David Matas has been recognized with yet another award, this time in his own home town.
On June 8, the Winnipeg-based Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada presented its 2016 and 2017 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Awards, with the awards going to Matas and fellow Winnipeger and philanthropist Art DeFehr respectively.
The annual award was established in 2010 to recognize and honour “original thinkers and initiators of conflict resolution.”
Throughout his life, Matas has been involved in numerous human rights causes, including most recently the persecution of Falun Gong adherents in China and the state-sanctioned forced removal of organs for profit from the adherents and other prisoners of conscience. His work on this issue earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination along with fellow investigator David Kilgour, a former Canadian cabinet minister.
Local MP Doug Eyolfson, who spoke at the event, complimented Matas and DeFehr and cited a quote from Gandhi that he said was his own inspiration to enter public service: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
In his speech at the ceremony, Matas said it’s important for people in the free world to support those who are suppressed in their own countries.
“It is we, outside of China or Iran or Eritrea, who must promote the values of Mahatma Gandhi in those countries, because people in those countries run a great risk doing that themselves,” he said.
“That is one reason I’ve been active in combating the mass killing in China of prisoners of conscience for their organs for transplants, primarily Falun Gong, but also including Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and house Christians.”
