1988 and 1993 Federal Elections Cohen stood as the Liberal candidate in Windsor—St. Clair in the
1988 election, but lost to
New Democratic Party incumbent
Howard McCurdy. However, in the
1993 election, Cohen defeated McCurdy for the seat. Following the election, she was briefly the subject of controversy when she and her husband were sued for $200,000 in unpaid debt, but Cohen blamed the situation on the costs of conducting a political campaign and the controversy soon subsided after she agreed to a debt consolidation plan. a request which the government accepted. After the first sitting of the new parliament in January 1994, Cohen was the first newly elected MP to be subjected to a critical profile in
Frank, although both Cohen and the
Windsor Star criticized the profile's accuracy. In February 1994, Cohen was appointed to the
House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources and Development. In June, she was one of several Liberal MPs, alongside
Jean Augustine,
Barry Campbell,
Bill Graham and
Hedy Fry, who privately intervened with
Ontario Liberal Party leader
Lyn McLeod to encourage her not to withdraw the party's support of the
Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act (Bill 167). In August, she was appointed co-chair with
Herb Gray of a parliamentary subcommittee to investigate allegations against the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service, including the role of
Grant Bristow as an informant. On the final day of the
1995 Ontario provincial election campaign, Cohen was one of several MPs, alongside
Jane Stewart,
Paddy Torsney,
Benoît Serré and
Stan Dromisky, who made speeches in the federal House of Commons campaigning on behalf of McLeod's Ontario Liberal Party and against the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of
Mike Harris. In September 1995, she was one of only a few MPs to vote in favour of
Réal Ménard's private member's motion calling on the government to recognize
same-sex marriage. In January 1996, she travelled to the
Middle East as an election monitor for the
Palestinian Authority election. In March, she was appointed to and named as chair of the
House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice. In this capacity, she conducted a review of the federal
Young Offenders Act, which led to reforms announced by Justice Minister
Anne McLellan in 1998. She was re-elected in the
1997 election by a narrower margin, due to a significant resurgence in support for the New Democratic Party. Her NDP challenger was
Joe Comartin.
Death in House of Commons On December 9, 1998, she collapsed in the
House of Commons, just minutes after she had stood to address the House. Three MPs, that were doctors, rushed to her desk and performed CPR on her until paramedics took over about ten minutes later. She was the fifth MP in Canadian history to die on Parliament Hill, and the first ever to suffer a fatal health incident in the House of Commons chamber rather than in her office or on the wider Parliament Hill grounds. In the House the following day, MPs from all parties spoke in tribute to Cohen. Reform Party MP
Randy White praised her personality as "a seemingly impossible combination of vigorous partisanship and open-minded friendship," while New Democratic Party leader
Alexa McDonough paid tribute to Cohen's passionate belief in "the pursuit of justice for the rights of those who were not being fully respected." with prime minister
Jean Chrétien and almost the entire federal cabinet attending the service. Over 800 people attended the funeral held at St. Anne's Catholic Church in
Tecumseh. She was cremated after the church ceremony and her ashes were buried on
Pelee Island, Canada's most southern inhabited land. but lost to city councillor
Rick Limoges. Limoges won the by-election, narrowly defeating the NDP's Comartin by 91 votes, although Comartin defeated Limoges in the
2000 election. ==Legacy==