Madam Speaker, today I have the honour to present petition 114-11264. This petition was initiated by a young leader from the Kootenays and has been signed by many constituents in my riding. The petition notes that we are living in a climate crisis and that industrial activities have caused destruction to ecosystems around the world by activities permitted by law. The international community lacks a legal framework ensuring shared nation responsibility for humanitarian and environmental aid and, as a UN member state, Canada shares in a collective legal duty to promote social progress and better standards of life globally.
The petitioners call on the federal government to declare its support for, and to advocate international adoption of, an amendment to its own statute of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as a crime, which would provide a simple, effective deterrent to large-scale ecosystem destruction for those in positions of corporate and financial responsibility, and mandate a duty to protect for government officials enforceable within existing criminal justice systems.