Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from South Surrey—White Rock.
I want to start by commending my colleague from Parry Sound—Muskoka and the House Leader of the Official Opposition for the excellent work they are doing on this issue.
It is important to note what we are talking about here. We are talking about recognizing a genocide. One of my colleagues asked for the definition. Genocide can be defined as follows:
A crime against humanity committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Acts of genocide include deliberately endangering life or causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to endanger the life of the group, imposing measures intended to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children.
This is a serious topic, but it is an important one that has marked our collective psyche for bad reasons. Everyone is familiar with the so-called final solution, which took six million lives; the Rwandan genocide, which took between 500,000 and one million lives; the Armenian genocide, which took 1.8 million lives; and the Srebrenica genocide, which took more than 7,000 lives.
This is a human tragedy on a massive scale. We are talking about systematically eliminating a segment of the population. This shows just how evil human beings can be.
This is particularly relevant here because of the Canadian mosaic. People from all over the world, of all religions and beliefs, have come to Canada. When ethnic cleansing takes place in another part of the world, it often affects the distant family of a neighbour, colleague, or friend, who is devastated. The concern is also palpable in Canada.
It is partly for that reason that I am pleased to speak to such an important issue. However, I am also extremely disappointed to have to do so. If the government had had the courage to call a spade a spade, we would not be here today debating this motion.
This week, to cite one of countless cases, the media reported that 19 Yezidi women were burned alive for refusing to have sex with their ISIL captors. It was reported that they were burned alive in the public square, closed in a cage, in front of several hundred people in Mosul. Young Yezidi women are captured, raped, and sold as sex slaves by the Islamic fundamentalists belonging to ISIL.
The jihadists demand that members of the Yezidi religious minority convert to Islam. After separating the men and women, they strip the villagers of their jewellery, money, and cellphones.
According to accounts in a United Nations report, ISIL rounds up all the men over 10 years old, takes them out of the villages in trucks, and shoots them, as was the case in previous genocides. ISIL militants then drive the Yezidi women to markets in Mosul or in Raqqa, Syria, to sell them. They even put price tags on the women, like items in a store.
I would invite my Liberal colleagues, who love consultations, to ask Canadians across the country if they think that ISIL is committing genocide in the areas they occupy by targeting religious minorities, including Christians, Yezidis, and Shia, and selling people from those groups like slaves.
ISIL's cruelty is not limited only to those whose religious beliefs are different. Homosexuals, gays and lesbians, are also being targeted by ISIL torturers. In ISIL's world, human life no longer has any value. Anyone who is paying the least bit of attention knows this. They know that everyone in ISIL-controlled territory is living in a reign of terror under one of the most archaic, brutal regimes in the history of the human race, a world that makes the Middle Ages look very civilized.
Everything we see on television and all the reports from ISIL-controlled areas indicate that this is indeed a genocide, but those who are tormenting minorities can sleep in peace because our government does not like to bother totalitarian regimes that threaten the lives of thousands of people. Best not to interfere.
That world is light years away from the society we have built here in Canada, an open society where people of any sexual orientation and any religion need not fear for their survival.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his position on the matter on April 28, 2016. Quite frankly, it was a letdown. In response to the Leader of the Opposition, he said:
...the official recognition of genocide is so serious that it should only happen following a proper international investigation. That is what we are pushing, and it is absolutely in line with our allies.
Apparently that is what passes for responsible conviction.
That is not surprising coming from someone who so brilliantly explained that it is hard to set priorities. As a proper academic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs would rather wait until it is all over so that he can count the number of bodies before deciding if it really is a genocide or not.
Apparently that is what responsible conviction means: making claims, saying that Canada is back, but not really doing much to help the people targeted by these atrocities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also says that his position is in line with what our allies are doing. We must have a different understanding of what an ally is. What we have heard from the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, differs significantly from what our Minister of Foreign Affairs has said. I would like to share a quote from Mr. Kerry:
Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions—in what it says, what it believes, and what it does. Daesh is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups and in some cases also against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities....
I want to be clear...Ultimately, the full facts must be brought to light by an independent investigation and through formal legal determination made by a competent court or tribunal. But the United States will strongly support efforts to collect, document, preserve, and analyze the evidence of atrocities, and we will do all we can to see that the perpetrators are held accountable
The fact that those responsible for these crimes admit their own guilt does not seem to be enough for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Really, when the time comes to protect victims, here in Canada and elsewhere, the Liberals are nowhere to be found. The American government, our greatest partner and ally, recognizes that this is a genocide. In the U.S., Congress and the Obama administration have said that Daesh is committing a genocide in the territories it occupies.
The British Parliament voted unanimously in favour of recognizing the atrocities committed by ISIL as genocide. It also asked the government to call on the International Criminal Court to intervene and investigate to ensure that the guilty parties are arrested and tried. I would also like to point out that all those who acknowledge that ISIL is committing genocide in the territories it occupies are doing far more than Canada is doing in the fight to eradicate this terrorist group.
Before I conclude my remarks, I would like to come back to the definition of genocide. A genocide is a crime against humanity with a view to the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, radical, or religious group. That is pretty much what is currently happening in the regions under ISIL's control. Mass executions are common currency.
Genocide is a wilful attack against the life and physical integrity of a group of people, and the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to endanger the lives of those in the group. When people have no choice, and have to convert or be executed, that is pretty much the definition of genocide. Considering all these facts, we wonder what it will take for the government and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, world leader in setting priorities and master of the responsible conviction policy, to apply the word “genocide” to the atrocities committed by ISIL in its occupied territories.
On this side of the House, we would like to see the government do more to fight against ISIL to put an end to the massacre of religious minorities and groups whose views differ from those of the terrorists who are trying to impose their caliphate. Acknowledging that this is a genocide will be a step in the right direction, but much remains to be done to end the genocide currently being committed.