When Prime Minister Trudeau called me on the evening of December 2, 2017, with an invitation to join you in this Senate chamber, I was humbled to be given this magnificent opportunity, this licence to learn and this new platform from which to participate in effecting positive change in Canada and the world. I knew I would be standing on the shoulders of many great senators, including friends and associates: Senators Peggy Butts, Allan J. MacEachen, John Stewart, Al Graham and Roméo Dallaire.

I also knew I would be joining an impressive group of Canadian leaders in this place, but I had no idea just what wide-ranging talent, intelligence, dedication, warmth and very sincere commitment I would encounter in you, my new colleagues.

Today is the thirty-seventh day I have sat with you in this noble chamber. With your guidance and with an open spirit of collaboration and collegiality, I will endeavour to serve the people of Canada with wisdom, purpose and integrity. I will be speaking to key aspects of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, and I am pledging today to work with you until the end of my senatorial term — coincidentally in late 2029 — to achieve the 17 goals articulated in that bold UN resolution designed to transform the world into a better place for all.

Last Saturday, the Most Reverend Michael Curry, an African American Episcopalian Bishop, delivered a powerful sermon at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I quote from his sermon:

When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream. . . . When love is the way, poverty would become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields. . . . When love is the way, there’s plenty good room. Plenty good room. For all of God’s children.

I would wager a bet that the vast majority of the people in attendance at that wedding, plus the many millions watching, listening to or reading coverage of the royal event, will have never even heard of Agenda 2030 and the sustainable development goals. I don’t even know if Bishop Curry is aware of them, even though most countries in the world, including his, ours and Prince Harry’s, signed a commitment to work together to reach those goals. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that compelling messages such as his are reaching people and hopefully in some cases even motivating them to act.

Bishop Curry touches on the core themes of Agenda 2030, the themes of justice, freedom from poverty, caring for our precious planet, peace and inclusion — room at the table for all. Love is the unifying refrain of his sermon. Of course, one expects to hear about love at weddings, but we don’t often speak of it here in this chamber, at least I haven’t heard it mentioned very often.

When I reflect about this place, though, and the duty and opportunity we all have to do our very best with what we have and who we are, I believe that love is a powerful motivator. It is at the core of most faiths as well as the beliefs and values of most societies.

With all this talk of love, allow me to tell you a little about myself and my reasons for supporting Senator Dawson’s motion.

Do any of you remember the brilliant 1991 movie The Commitments based on the novel by Irish writer Roddy Doyle? The main protagonist, Jimmy Rabbitte, when interviewing candidates for his soul band, would ask them who were their influences. Well, here are some of my influences.

I am the first-born daughter in a Roman Catholic family, seven children in the family, thus the name Mary. I learned and continue to learn to love and about love from my immediate family — my 91-year-old mom, Betty; my late father, Bernard Charles Patterson; and my large extended family of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and in our generation, James Bay Cree, Filipino, Chinese, Italian and Armenian heritage. I am proud to have three daughters — Emilie, Lauren and Lindelwa — all good people, with backgrounds in education, the environment, law, immigration and refugee issues, who further enriched our family with three terrific men and six precious grandchildren.

Privileged woman that I am, I can attest to the fact that love is like other good things — not a zero-sum game but rather something that can continue to grow and help each of us grow.

As young children, we were taught that God, and therefore goodness, existed in all people and that we were to love our neighbours as ourselves, that golden rule. I went on to live and work in many different places. I worked in Indonesia, France, India, Bolivia, Afghanistan, Wikwemikong, Botswana, Haiti and other places and came to know that people of other faiths and non-faiths shared these beliefs.

At Expo 67, as an impressionable 12-year-old, my eyes were opened to the great, big, exciting international world beyond the small Canadian towns and new suburbs where I had grown up. A year later, at 13, I walked the Oxfam Miles for Millions march to raise money for programs in what today we would call the global south. It was then that I started to put together my interest in the global and the “love thy neighbour” teachings of my childhood.

At high school, two teachers had significant influence. Mr. Gibson, my biology teacher and adventurer club adviser, sparked my interest in nature and the environment. And Ms. Thibault, the first person I had ever met who called herself “Ms.,” a feminist who instilled in me a desire to do more as a woman and also taught me a love of the French language and culture.

Later I studied existentialism and Albert Camus, who famously said, “The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance . . . .” He also said, “I know of only one duty, and that is to love.”

Later, as I embarked on my professional life, I had occasion to meet Toronto activist June Callwood, who said, “Once you witness an injustice, you are no longer an observer but a participant.”

I had the good fortune of working in Canada and internationally in the fields of microfinance; community; rural and economic development; women’s, youth, and Indigenous leadership; and I have learned from some very wise colleagues and friends.

Ela Bhatt, founder of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association, doesn’t mince words when she said, “It is our moral failure that we still tolerate poverty.” She continues: “It is the women who are the leaders in change, and without their participation, poverty can never be removed.”

Another friend and mentor, Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate of the Grameen Bank, said: “We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity.”

I first heard John McKnight, founder of Chicago-based Asset-Based Community Development Institute, ABCD Institute, on a CBC Ideas series in the early 1990s. He and his colleagues, including the young Barack Obama, observed that inner-city neighbourhoods did better when the people living there identified and mobilized their own assets — their strengths and resources — defined their own priorities and led their own development.

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Later at the Coady Institute, colleagues Alison Mathie, Gord Cunningham and Brianne Peters would marry this ABCD work with the “Masters of Their Own Destiny” approach of the Antigonish Movement.

The Coady approach is based on a fundamental respect for the abilities and rights of people everywhere to drive their own development and the belief that all people and communities have something to bring to the table.

Recently returned from her refugee experience in Iran, Bibi Gul is an Afghan widow with a dependent son. I met Bibi up on the Kabul mountainside where she had literally carved out her home from the rock face. She was making a living by embroidering badges for police forces and other officials. She was using micro loans to purchase equipment, and the specialized threads she was importing from Iran. Bibi had incredible drive and was proud of the home and business she had created.

So, as you can see, with such terrific mentors and influencers — influencers like Bibi on the power of human ingenuity, others on love, international obligations, feminist influencers, environmentalist influencers, human rights influencers, innovation influencers, influencers on respect for peoples’ strengths and leadership, I felt compelled to speak today to Agenda 2030.

In the impressive volume Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew, our colleague Senator Joyal tells us that:

Parliament is about power: it exists for one reason only — to empower the people of Canada . . . .

In speaking of power, I will mention one other influencer, Dr. John Gaventa, of IDS Sussex. Without delving into too much detail, John makes important distinctions among the concepts of power: power over, power to, power within and power with. These are critical concepts to consider as we look at engaging, equipping and supporting people, communities and institutions to achieve Agenda 2030.

The UN resolution establishing Agenda 2030 reads:

We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet.

By extension, we as parliamentarians have an obligation to contribute to achieving our national and global commitments which stem from this resolution.

Rather than list or address all 17 sustainable development goals, allow me to briefly touch on the ones most closely related to that powerful sermon of Bishop Curry:

When love is the way, poverty will become history.

Goal 1 of Agenda 2030 is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. It is important to note that this goal is not just to reduce poverty but rather to completely eliminate it, to make it history. As Dr. Yunus says, “One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.”

This is not a goal with a simple solution. Goals 2, 3, 4 and 8 on hunger, health, education and work are intimately connected to this goal on eliminating poverty.

Albert Camus cautions:

. . . good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.

So understanding the complexities of poverty in all its forms is critical, as is the importance of seeing people living in poverty as citizens with a stake, a say and a capacity to lead change.

I would also posit that this is the area — ending poverty — where we need the greatest investment in innovation.

We will let justice roll down. We will lay down our swords and shields.

Goal 16 is to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Justice is a hallmark of a healthy, well-governed society. As we well know, there can be no peace in our world without justice. As we hear from Ela Bhatt, poverty and peace cannot coexist.

When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.

On my way home last week, I stopped by my favourite lake and took my first refreshing plunge of the season. I’m a bit crazy. For me, for us, and for all creatures who are dependent on this magnificent planet, we have a supreme obligation.

Goals 13 on climate action, 14 on life below water, and 15 on life on land help guide us towards Bishop Curry’s vision of earth as sanctuary.

I must say that some of the starkest testimony I have heard during my very brief tenure as a senator has come from Indigenous people and scientists describing what is happening as a result of climate change in the Canadian Arctic. I am deeply concerned that the Indigenous peoples of Canada’s North are becoming the proverbial canaries in the coal mine.

When love is the way there’s plenty good room, plenty good room for all of God’s children.

Goal 10 speaks of reduced inequalities, particularly income inequality within and among countries.

Goal 5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

If all people, women, men, young people, people of all racial backgrounds, seniors, Indigenous people, people with physical and mental health issues, people with intellectual disabilities, LGBTQ people, people in rural and remote areas, newcomers — everyone — could fully participate in all aspects of citizenship, they would thrive and so would our country and our world. Inclusion is both an end and a means for achieving the sustainable development goals. Genuine cooperation is what is needed.

As I draw my discourse on Agenda 2030 towards a conclusion and as I reflect on our roles as parliamentarians, I would like to quote another reverend. In the 1930s, Reverend Dr. Moses Coady wrote:

We cannot speak of Catholic cooperation or Protestant cooperation, of Buddhist, Mohammedan, Shinto, or Hebrew economics any more than we can speak of Quaker chemistry or Mormon mathematics. Truth is non-denominational and at the disposal of all.

The collective pursuit of that truth, those solutions sought with genuine respect, those answers found through a mutual sharing of power, and that agenda achieved through the widespread unleashing of human ingenuity, energy and shared leadership, this will be the way. This is the loving way, the sustainable way, the way for us to act as we urgently pursue Agenda 2030.

Remember, I only have until 2029. Thank you. Wela’lioq.