Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today on behalf of my colleagues in the New Democratic Party to indicate our strong support for Bill C-19 and to commend the minister for bringing forward this historic and landmark legislation.
It is appropriate that today, April 6, we as parliamentarians should be considering legislation that deals with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Today is the sixth anniversary of the start of the Rwanda genocide, 100 days of terror which led to the murder of as many as two million people, Tutsis and moderate Hutus. They were calculatingly and unmercifully butchered in what was clearly a genocide on April 6, 1994. It is timely that we consider this important legislation at this time.
I want to note as well that an essential element of this legislation is to establish what the minister called a culture of accountability. We strongly support the notion of that culture of accountability, that those who have blood on their hands, those who are responsible for these terrible crimes, must be brought to justice.
It is with a sense of sadness that I remind the House that one of those who must be held accountable for the genocide in Rwanda remains within Canada's borders today. Mugesera Léon, who publicly called for ethnic cleansing and extermination of the Tutsi people in the period leading up to the Rwanda massacre, is still in Canada today. Mugesera Léon said in a speech that was broadcast in November 1992 nationwide on Radio Rwanda:
We will take care ourselves of the massacre of the cockroaches, the Tutsi. We demand that we make a list of all those people. What are we waiting for decimate these families? Destroy them. No matter what you do, do not let them get away.
The author of those words, which were an incitement to genocide, is in Canada today. He remains unpunished. Canada must not be a haven for people like Mugesera Léon. Canada must not just deport this individual. Surely we must extradite Mugesera Léon so that he can stand trial for his terrible crimes against humanity. My colleagues and I in the New Democratic Party join with people from the Rwandan community and many others in appealing to our government to demonstrate leadership on this fundamentally important question.
I support the bill. I salute the government not just for bringing the bill forward. I commend not just our government but in particular Ambassador Philippe Kirsch who has played such an extraordinary leadership role in the international community in bringing the International Criminal Court from a dream to reality. The statute that created the court came into force on July 17, 1998, in Rome at a conference which was chaired by Ambassador Philippe Kirsch.
It has been over 50 years since the United Nations first recognized the importance of establishing an international criminal court, an international tribunal to prosecute crimes such as genocide. In a resolution of 1948 the general assembly noted that genocide had inflicted great losses on humanity and pointed out that in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge international co-operation was required. In the early 1950s the United Nations attempted to pull together a statute to create an international criminal court. It is only today, some 50 years later, that the court has finally become a reality.
Canada can be proud of the role we have played in the establishment of that court. It is not just of our government. I want to signal as well the contribution of many NGOs. The Canadian Network for an International Criminal Court included a broad cross-section of NGOs. It included many churches. It included the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. It included Amnesty International and many other Canadian NGOs.
Among those I want to pay particular tribute to today is one gentleman from the World Federalists of Canada, Fergus Watt, who played such an instrumental role in rallying support for the International Criminal Court within Canada.
This is a day to celebrate the creation of this important international tribunal, but it is also a day to reflect on what might have been and what should be when it comes to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
I have mentioned the history and we know the tragedy of Rwanda, of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of East Timor and of the crimes against humanity in Chile. Certainly many of us were saddened that Augusto Pinochet, instead of facing his accusers, the families of those who disappeared, those who were murdered in cold blood, in a court of law, has now returned to Chile where tragically he may never, ever face justice. As my colleague from Saskatoon has said, that is a shame and a tragedy. Hopefully under the International Criminal Court there will be no repetition of the failure to have a reckoning for those kinds of terrible crimes.
We know that Canada's record with respect to the prosecution of those responsible for crimes against humanity who are within our borders is a shameful one. Irving Abella has written eloquently of our history of slamming the door shut to those who were attempting to flee the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. His book was entitled None is too Many . The fact of the matter is that we have not come to grips with our responsibility to bring these war criminals to justice. Certainly the passage of time does not in any way diminish the significance of their crimes.
As I said, the legislation codifies and ratifies our adoption of the principles of the Rome statute established in the International Criminal Court. One very important element of that statute is that there are a number of provisions specifically addressing the plight of women and children in armed conflict.
The statute recognizes, for the first time, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence as war crimes and as crimes against humanity. It also recognizes the enlistment or the use of children under 15 in armed conflicts as a war crime. Those are very important provisions. I know that Canada fought particularly hard to ensure that they were included in the legislation.
We can be proud of our role, but there are inconsistencies in our approach. Even as we support this legislation, even as the government introduces this landmark legislation, we are fighting in another international forum, the ad hoc tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the international criminal tribunal looking at war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. We are fighting its jurisdiction to look at the issue of war crimes which may have been committed by NATO in the former Yugoslavia during the very tragic events which occurred in the spring of 1999 both in Kosovo and in Serbia.
We cannot have it both ways. Our government cannot on the one hand say that there must be responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes and that it must be universal, yet when there are attempts made to ensure that those universal principles apply within the context of the situation, the war and bombings which took place in the former Yugoslavia, our government cannot say that that jurisdiction does not apply to us.
Canada is indeed one of the 10 countries that have been cited in that complaint brought by Professor Michael Mandel of Canada, among others. I believe we have to take that very seriously.
We look at some of the allegations made about the conduct of that war. A bridge was bombed by NATO in broad daylight. A nine year old child on a bicycle was murdered in cold blood, along with too many others. A train crossing a bridge was hit by NATO missiles not once but twice. The headquarters of Serbian television and radio were bombed deliberately, killing innocent technicians and makeup artists, young men and women. We have to ask ourselves if those who are responsible for these crimes must not also face their day in court. I believe that indeed they must face that reckoning.
We can also look at another context, a context of what many of us believe is effectively genocidal policies. That is the context of what is taking place in Iraq today. It is what has been taking place over the past decade under the imposition of United Nations sanctions which have resulted in the death of over 500,000 innocent children. This has been well documented by UNICEF and other international tribunals. It has been eloquently denounced by the former UN humanitarian co-ordinator, Denis Halliday, eloquently and passionately denounced by his successor, Hans von Sponeck, who has announced his resignation.
I had the privilege of meeting with Hans von Sponeck when I visited Iraq along with a delegation from a group called Objection de Conscience or Voices of Conscience. They pointed out the combined impact of the destruction of Iraqi infrastructure from bombing in the spring of 1991, the ongoing bombing which is taking place illegally by the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and the massive starvation of innocent civilians, children and others, malnutrition used as a weapon of war against innocent children.
Dr. Sheila Zurbrig of Halifax, one of the world's experts on this subject, has made it very clear that this is a breach of the most fundamental international obligations which exist. The Geneva conventions say that we cannot use malnutrition and starvation as a weapon of war, yet that is what is happening in Iraq.
I want to be very clear. This is certainly not suggesting that we should not be calling Saddam Hussein to account for his crimes against humanity. We all know of the terrible attacks on the Kurds, the gassing of Kurds in Halabja and elsewhere, but it is not acceptable that innocent Iraqi people should be victimized in this way, allegedly in order to attack Saddam Hussein.
Denis Halliday said that we are destroying an entire society. It is as terrifying and as simple as that.
We call for support for this resolution, this bill before the House today. At the same time I would appeal to our government to recognize that we should not be a part of the genocidal policies in Iraq ourselves. We should be using our position of leadership as we preside this month at the security council to call for a de-linking of military and economic sanctions, for the immediate lifting of economic sanctions, for an end to the illegal bombing in the north and the south, for the opening of a Canadian embassy in Iraq and for regional disarmament in that deeply troubled region.
It is very important that we work toward the day when there will be truly universal accountability under this International Criminal Court. It is not good enough, frankly, that the United States should say that it will not be bound by this statute, that it arrogates unto itself the power to say no, it will not be a part of this acknowledgement by the international community that there must be a tribunal that has jurisdiction over all, including the United States. It has said no to the International Criminal Court, no to the land mines convention. We appeal to the United States to join with Canada in signing and ratifying this treaty.
The reality is, as former United States under secretary of state David Newson wrote in the Christian Science Monitor , “If the U.S. will not accept its obligations to the citizens of other lands, its own citizens will be less safe abroad”. I think it is important that we recognize and understand that.
Today we call on the Government of Canada to continue its important and valuable work in seeking the ratification of this treaty by other countries as well. So far I believe seven countries have ratified this treaty. Sixty are needed before it comes into force. Let us hope that we can get those 60 before December 2000 and that we can get those ratifications without any opting out declarations.
Let us celebrate the fact that the Rome Statute that establishes the International Criminal Court did not include the death penalty. I heard with sadness my colleague from the Reform Party, whom I congratulate on his recent naming as foreign affairs spokesperson for that party, lament the fact that this treaty did not include the death penalty. Surely we have moved beyond that to the point that we recognize that the death penalty is a barbarism that should not be included in any statute and which should be abolished throughout the world. I hope we continue to take a strong position on that.
Finally, let me say that I welcome the minister's suggestion that there be a full study of the bill by the committee so that those who do have concerns about the bill can be heard. I know that the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for example has written to members of the foreign affairs committee voicing concerns about the legislation. It is important that we invite them to be heard at the committee and that their concerns be listened to.
David Matas speaking on behalf of Amnesty International has raised concerns about some elements of the legislation while strongly supporting it. There are issues such as the rights of the defendant in the statute; the question of the mental elements of crime; the importance of clear definitions of crime both inside and outside Canada; the fact that individual criminal responsibility should be entrenched in the law; and that section 3.77 of the criminal code should be kept to ensure that people with connections to crime can also be convicted, that those who are directly involved and those who are intimately connected with crimes should accept their full responsibility.
Those are our concerns. As I have said, we support the bill. I am pleased to rise on behalf of my colleagues in supporting the bill.
In closing, I want to remind the House of the words of José Ayala-Lasso, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. He said that a person stands a better chance of being tried and judged for killing one human being than for killing 100,000.
That has been the truth too long on our planet. Let us hope that the adoption of the bill will be an important step forward by Canada on the road to universal jurisdiction, on the road to full responsibility and hopefully on the road to one day eliminating all crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.