It was a rare moment in the Manitoba legislature on Thursday as all party leaders set aside their differences to pay tribute to a young woman from Steinbach.

Mica Schellenberg, who passed away suddenly in late September, made local and national news headlines in 2016 as she brought concerns about LGBTQS2+ policies to the Hanover School Division.

Premier and Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen, NDP leader Wab Kinew and Liberal leader Dougald Lamont stood up at the end of the legislative session to speak about the impact Schellenberg had on them, the community and the province.

 

Goertzen said we don’t just mourn the loss of a young Manitoban, but we also mourn the loss of potential.

"In only 23 years Mica impressed on people a desire to live with empathy, to fight for justice, to strive for kindness and to act in grace."

Kinew recalled being in the Hanover School Division’s boardroom when he first observed Schellenberg’s activism in action as she pushed the school board to stay true to their student-centred mission. He explained that shortly after the SRSS set aside space for gay-straight alliances to meet saying she made her high school a little bit safer.

"Her legacy will live on. She changed her high school, she changed her hometown, she changed our province. Her time here on earth offers a lesson for us all. If you know something is the right thing to do, then do it."