Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a) and (c), Canada’s crimes against humanity and war crimes program is a coordinated intergovernmental effort between the Department of Justice; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, RCMP; Citizenship and Immigration Canada, CIC: and the Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA. Allegations are received by the program through various means. Some allegations come directly from screening methods employed by CIC and the CBSA. Other complaints are received from the public, the media, other countries and international institutions.
Since the inception of the program, CIC and the CBSA have worked on thousands of cases in the context of war crimes. Due to the nature and purpose of RCMP investigations, the number of cases referred to the criminal inventory is considerably lower. The program’s coordination and operations committee, PCOC, composed of members from each of the program partners, facilitates interdepartmental coordination in assessing allegations and referring cases to the appropriate partner for further action. The program partners have continued to examine allegations of modern war crimes to determine which remedy would be best suited for each allegation. For example, in order for an allegation to be added to the RCMP/Justice department criminal inventory, among other considerations, the allegation must disclose personal involvement or command responsibility, and the evidence pertaining to the allegation must be corroborated and obtainable in a reasonable and rapid fashion.
When deciding whether to initiate a prosecution pursuant to the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General must consider two issues: first, whether the evidence demonstrates that there is a reasonable prospect of conviction; and second, if so, does the public interest require a prosecution to be pursued?
With regard to (b), the 12th report on Canada’s Program on Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes 2008-2011 provides a snapshot of the number and type of files that form part of Canada’s crimes against humanity and war crimes program.
This most recent report indicates that there are 58 modern war crimes files in the RCMP/Justice department inventory, and is available at the following link: http://canada.justice.gc.ca/warcrimes-crimesdeguerre/researchreports-rechercherapports-eng.asp.
Since the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act was passed in 2000, the Deputy Attorney General of Canada has consented to commencing two cases for criminal prosecution.
In May 2009, Mr. Munyaneza was convicted of seven counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The offences were committed against the Tutsi minority during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. In the second case, Mr. Mungwarere stands charged with crimes against humanity, also allegedly committed during the Rwandan genocide. His trial commenced in June 2012 and is ongoing.
With regard to (d), the goal of Canada’s crimes against humanity and war crimes program is to deny safe haven in Canada to people involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. The Government of Canada demonstrated its commitment to the program by granting it funding on a permanent basis in the 2011 federal budget. Further details of the program’s progress and activities can be found in the 12th report on Canada’s Program on Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes 2008-2011.