Mr. Speaker, I am once again rising in the House to debate this topic. I do not know how many times I have spoken on this subject, both when I was in government and now.
During the time of the Conservative government when ISIL came onto the scene, we joined the coalition because of the horrendous crimes that started happening. Throughout the debates we had on the extension of the mission and other things, it became extremely clear that we were dealing with a type of group we had absolutely never dealt with before. It was very cruel. Everybody here, even members on the government side, have said very clearly what this group has done.
We have now reached the point where the question is not about engagement in the fight against ISIL. That we have done. The Conservatives have an absolutely different approach than the current government. We took a very strong approach, including air strikes. The Liberal government is taking a different approach in fighting ISIL, which we do not think is a very robust fight.
The point is that we brought in the ICC. We were concerned that the people committing these horrendous crimes against humanity across the world would go unpunished, so we brought in the ICC. The Rwanda genocide tribunal was in my hometown of Arusha, where I went to see the people who committed these crimes being brought to justice.
The same situation is arising now. Crimes have been committed and everybody is talking about it. As a matter of fact, everybody is talking about preserving the evidence. The evidence already exists. People are dying. Why are we preserving the evidence? We need to recognize what exactly is happening in this region by this group, which is the most violent non-state group ever.
The horrific crimes we have seen shock everybody's conscience. It absolutely shocks everybody. Therefore, it is right for us to stand up and say exactly what it is. It is genocide. Genocide is being committed in that part of the world. To say the UN should do it or a bunch of lawyers should do it is like saying, and I do not know if these are the appropriate words, but coming from Africa, it reminds me of an ostrich putting its head in the sand and not recognizing what is happening in reality.
What difference does it make? The Minister of Foreign Affairs tends to get angry and says it is partisan. He is admitting to me that he has been partisan all this time, even when he was on the other side. What difference does it make? It is not partisan. Conservatives are trying to bring attention to an issue that we think is absolutely necessary. We want to put it in the spotlight and say exactly what is happening. We cannot close our eyes.
If I recall correctly, it was a Liberal government that brought the right to intervene to the United Nations. Where did this right to intervene come from? The right to intervene came about so that genocides and massacres would not occur and states would have the right to intervene if the government did not. In this case, the governments of Syria and Iraq both did not have the capacity, so we intervened as part of the coalition.
Does it change the fact that this group has committed genocide? Does it change the fact that this group has committed horrendous crimes? Does it change the fact that this group needs to be brought to justice in front of a tribunal? We had the Rwanda tribunal, the Nuremberg trials. We can do it now. We can say it is genocide.
Today we are debating something that Canadians do not understand. They ask why we are debating this when ISIL is committing crimes. We are talking about genocide and whether lawyers should decide if genocide is occurring or not. Yes, it is genocide. They are crimes against humanity. We need to bring them out into the open. Genocide is a strong word. I agree. We need a strong word to describe what this group is doing.
The group ISIL is committing horrendous crimes, so what is wrong in saying that this group does commit crimes? Telling them it is genocide does not change one fact. It is exactly what this group is doing. It has taken the Armenian genocide and other genocides to be recognized, and now after 100 years, countries across the world are recognizing the meaning of genocide. What is the point after 100 years in recognizing this? We want to do it now so that we can start the process of setting up a tribunal under the United Nations and bringing these people to justice.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs said that he would have supported if we had put in our motion to do something about it or to work with the United Nations to set up a tribunal. If they agree to the motion and they are the government, they should start the process. The Liberals should go to the United Nations. The opposition cannot, but they can. They can set up the tribunal right now and encourage the world to set up tribunals. We are debating what a British parliamentarian said, or John Kerry said. Let us move along and get these people who have committed this horrendous tragedy so that they do not get away. Many of them are trying to run away so they will not be charged under crimes against humanity.
Nonsense. We have laws in Canada to stop them from going there, but things have not changed. The fact of the matter is that the Liberals want to close their eyes and not do anything. This is genocide. We have to go there and bring these people who are committing crimes to justice.
Roméo Dallaire is very clear when he speaks about genocide in Rwanda. There was killing in Rwanda, and at the time no one did anything. I myself have been to Burundi and have talked to a child soldier. When I looked at a child soldier, he was a 13-year-old boy who had already killed 20 people by that time, and there was no emotion there. This was a child soldier.
I am not talking about child soldiers, but about those people who are responsible and should be brought to justice. Right now, we are at war. Many of them have been eliminated through strikes, which is good, because we have to stop this group. At the same time, we should start the legal process to recognize what is taking place there. We should not wait for another 50 or 100 years from now for other parliamentarians to get up in the House and say, let us have unanimous consent to say that what happened in Syria and Iraq was genocide. Let us do it now.
This is the opportunity to do it, and then I think we should pick up on what the Minister of Foreign Affairs said. His government can start doing it by going to the United Nations and saying let us set up a tribunal now. We do not have to wait until they are defeated. Set it up now, and they can be brought in front of a tribunal. That is what ICC has done.
There have been talks in Africa where the African leaders are upset with the ICC, but the fact is that we need to bring people who are committing crimes to justice. Genocide or not genocide, it does not matter. It is there, so let us set it up. Let the message be clear to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the Liberal government, to go to the United Nations and start setting up a tribunal to bring them to justice. Whatever we want to say, it is genocide.