Kirsty Duncan on Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

With respect to genocide: (a) does the government define the term according to the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; (b) how does the government qualify and quantify “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (e.g. is there a critical threshold that must be surpassed in terms of numbers of people killed, extent of physical destruction), and how does the government distinguish among domestic conflict, genocide and war; (c) what are the government’s legal and ethical responsibilities to intervene and protect as a signatory to the 1951 Convention; (d) what is the decision-making process that the government takes in determining whether killing is genocide or not, whether Canada takes action or not, and what possible action might look like; (e) how does the government ensure that it does not use the wording of the convention, namely the lack of numbers of dead or displaced to constitute genocide, to avoid enforcing it; (f) does the government have any measures in place to ensure that national sovereignty is not used as an excuse to prevent Canada from enforcing United Nations regulations; (g) what is the decision-making process that ensures that Canada has multiple viewpoints before making a decision on a possible genocide, and does not just take the viewpoint of a main party while ignoring the opposing side and third-parties; (h) has the government examined past genocides, and identified early warnings, where Canada might have taken action earlier, what the savings would have been in terms of human life, society, and the economy, and how such lessons might be applied to current conflicts, such as Pakistan and Sudan; (i) what factors has the government identified as potentially leading to genocide, and has it developed an early-warning system or response centre / institution; (j) what specific tactics has the government established to stop genocide; (k) does the government have a special representative for genocide prevention, as well as access to people who are experts in genocide early warning and, if so, to what departments do they belong, and do they have sufficient funding to properly do their jobs; and (l) what legislation is in place to allow Canada to take action, and to hold aggressors to account?