Must be the season of the witch on Parliament Hill.
At the very least, it is for Calgary Nosehill MP Michelle Rempel Garner.
The Tory health critic marked Halloween weekend Friday with a tribute to the witches of the past and the present.
“Throughout the course of history, women have been burned at the stake and tortured for being witches,” Rempel Garner said. “In reality they were herbalists, midwives or just too independent for the patriarchy’s liking.”
According to the rules of the House of Commons, MPs may take one minute to give a statement on whatever they want. Rempel Garner used the time to make a seasonally appropriate and expansive statement on women and Halloween.
She also specifically shouted out independent MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, who was booted from the Liberal caucus in 2019 after speaking out during the SNC-Lavalin affair.
WATCH: A timeline of the SNC-Lavalin affair. Story continues below.
“Today we might not literally burn women at the stake, but we still don’t believe them when they’re abused, we still punish them when they speak truth to power,” Rempel Garner said.
The speech was timed not only with Halloween, but Samhain, a traditional festival marking the end of the harvest and beginning of the dark winter. It’s traditionally observed starting on Halloween night and rolling into Nov. 1. The festival is marked annually by neo-pagans and wiccans as a religious holiday.
This weekend will be extra special, as it’s the first full moon visible across North America on Halloween in 76 years. It’s also a rare Halloween “Blue Moon,” meaning the second full moon of the month. October is the only month with a Blue Moon in 2020, according to NASA.
Like all full moons, the Blue Moon will be visible from sunset to sunrise and rises in the east and sets in the west. Expect it to reach its full height late at night into the early morning if you’re looking to partake in some witchy activities of your own.
With daylight saving time also falling on Halloween night this year, it’s an overall spooky and celestially unique weekend.
Friday isn’t even the first time Rempel Garner has brought up witches in the House. She made similar comments earlier this month during a debate of a bill that would mandate judge to take sexual assault sensitivity training.
“To all the witches out there, keep rockin’ it, blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween.”
- Michell Rempel Garner
“We still burn women for being witches, even if it is metaphorically,” Rempel Garner said at the time. “That is why we are debating the bill, but there is hope. Women have always had the innate power to create, to bless, to lead and to heal.”
Rempel Garner ended her speech Friday with a message to any witches who happened to be watching the House of Commons.
“To all the witches out there, keep rockin’ it, blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween,” she said.
Keep rockin’ it, indeed.