Mr. Speaker, there is a growing and a rare consensus among western lawmakers and world leaders that the atrocities committed by ISIS against the minorities under its control constitutes the crime of genocide.
The U.S. Congress, the British Parliament, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have preceded us in making this determination. Like John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Pope Francis, these institutions have recognized this crime by its rightful name, genocide.
What should Canada do? The facts demand that we call this genocide. Our obligations under the genocide convention demand we call this genocide. In fact, if we do not, we betray not only the victims and the cause of justice, but we fail Canadians who expect us as MPs to do better than our predecessors who sat in these very seats in addressing a crime that was rightly described by Winston Churchill as the crime of crimes.
I believe I am not alone in the House in carrying a sense of shame over the silence that resonated all too often in the western world and in this chamber as previous genocides were perpetrated. I therefore must take issue with those who have suggested that this motion, like those that were passed in the U.S. and in Europe, is somehow beyond Parliament's purview, and that recognizing genocide for what it is is strictly a legal determination to only be made by a court.
Today, the member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country said that genocide was not for us to decide. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also said that genocide was not for us to determine. They are both so very wrong.
It is true that an individual accused of this crime can only be convicted in a court of law. However, our obligation as parliamentarians and as Canadians under the genocide convention to punish the perpetrator of genocide was never meant to replace or impede our concurrent obligation to prevent genocide. Our obligation to prevent and to protect, demands that parliaments like ours make a determination, an indictment of sorts, upon which our policies are to be predicated.
Today, the member for Spadina—Fort York said, “there is this sense that simply uttering a word is going to save a life; that simply uttering a word is going to suddenly transform action on the ground”. The member for Burlington said, “it is times like these where it is compelling, when we see the videos, when we see the images, to want to name what is happening.” Then they went on to define why we should not.
We know we cannot prevent what we cannot name and because we know this, their comments are cowardly and shameful. Waiting for a legal ruling that could be years away, if ever, before raising our voice as a country would simply add another shameful chapter to the history of reticence in the face of genocide, which has plagued the last century.
As noted by Diane Orentlicher, an expert on genocide at American University's Washington College of Law:
One of the mistakes we have made in recent memory is we have performed legal gymnastics to avoid using the word 'genocide' when describing real-time atrocities...That misses the point of the [international] Genocide Convention—which is, if you wait until it's legally certain that a genocide has occurred, you have waited too long to prevent it.
Genocide has a very specific legal threshold that is different from those required to determine whether an atrocity should be considered a crime against humanity or a war crime. It is a legal threshold that in the past has sometimes been difficult to prove. However, today we have cellphones, video cameras, an instant news cycle, social media, YouTube, Periscope, and many other methods to transmit information. ISIS has used this to its disgusting advantage.
Its genocidal actions have been widely documented and disseminated. Its genocidal actions are undeniable. Its genocidal actions are unabashed and open, and its guilt, freely admitted and publicized in numerous publications, including Dabiq, the official ISIS magazine.
Mass graves have been uncovered. Documentaries of women in sexual slavery have been made. Yazidi women are being sold over the Internet. What more proof does the government need? Furthermore, ISIS genocide is neither a crime nor even a tactic, but an ideal and value unto itself, and one that is espoused by this group.
Secretary of State John Kerry put it succinctly and accurately, “[ISIS] is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions – in what it says, what it believes, and what it does”. He is right. The evidence has far exceeded the threshold for probable cause and the quotient of atrocity required for this determination.
The first question today asked of the Leader of the Opposition in moving the motion was again by the member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country. I was blown away. The first question was on what responsibility the Leader of the Opposition feels to the International Criminal Court. I would ask her and my colleagues here, should that be our first concern? Are we so down the path of moral relativism that we cannot acknowledge that our first responsibility should be to save the women who are at this very moment, while we sit here arguing over semantics, being raped and tortured by ISIS?
Our first responsibility should be to the tens of thousands who were trapped on Mount Sinjar and felt starvation and dehydration. It should be to those who cannot reach refugee camps because they will be further persecuted. It should be to those who have nowhere to go and nowhere to turn. If that is not our first responsibility and our first concern, then who are we as a country?
I have to mention two Yazidi women who have been in contact with me in Calgary. They have been through so much, and they do not understand it when the government stands up and cannot conform to its obligations under the genocide convention of preventing genocide.
This is what they told me. They told me that girls have jumped from two stories, breaking their backs while trying to escape. Many others were killed trying to escape. The Yazidis were all trapped at the top of the mountain. Many were betrayed by their neighbours, only to be captured or killed. All men are executed except for young boys, who are then brainwashed into being child suicide bombers, willing to return to destroy their previous communities. A woman refused to let go of her baby while being brutally raped, so they killed the baby in front of her and continued to rape her. The women, once rescued, are unable to go back into society because they are considered damaged goods. Recently their leader spoke out, saying that the communities must accept the women, but they are still unwelcome. There were 150 women who were put into one dark room for days with no water and no light bulb, brought out a few at a time for short periods, only to be raped and abused by their captors. There are 272 Yazidi children who will not come home because they were brainwashed by ISIS for suicide missions.
I have sadly concluded that up until now, the atrocities against these minorities have not adequately found their way into the policies of the western world, and only a tiny fraction of these communities have found their way on to western shores. This is why rediscovering our sense of urgency has to start by beginning with calling these crimes genocide. It is a word that conveys a particular level of evil, of premeditation, of monstrosity, and it should never be blithely used, but it also must not be shied away from because of the sheer gravity of the word.
Making this designation does not establish a hierarchy of suffering in the world of atrocities, but it does recognize a hierarchy of evil as defined by our laws and our most basic of values, a hierarchy that should be a critical component in defining our policy priorities. We should not be worried about what we need to do after we call this genocide. We should call it genocide and start getting that stuff done.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs just said in the House that supporting the motion would be playing politics and that it would create a dangerous precedent. I would argue rather, that voting against the motion by each member of the government would do those exact things.
Former president Bill Clinton has publicly expressed his deep regret on multiple occasions for not declaring the Rwanda slaughter as a genocide, and it would be a terrible error for us to make the same mistake. No number of future apologies, mournful eulogies, or successful prosecutions will atone for and acquit us of the error of silence.
Canada should not remain outside this extraordinary moment of consensus in the face of an extraordinary evil. I urge my colleagues to reconsider this, look in the bottom of their heart and figure out what is right, and to consider their vote based on these facts, irrespective of any policy consideration. I urge my colleagues to consider why they are here. They are here to protect the people we serve and stand up for what is right. I urge my colleagues to save many lives and support this motion.