Mr. Speaker, I must admit that it is very difficult for me to speak on the motion put forward by my hon. colleague, the member for Ahuntsic. It is not that I disagree with what it says, quite the contrary, but the subject is so terribly sad.
If I have agreed to participate in the debate today, it is because I believe that the events referred to in this motion must never be forgotten by present or future generations.
Who has not heard about the violence and mistreatment inflicted upon the Armenian people in the early part of this century? The violence was such that the word genocide, as defined by the United Nations in 1948, can be used without hesitation. And I believe that any amount of manoeuvring to avoid using the word genocide would be sheer deception or hypocrisy.
In a nutshell, genocide means the systematic and purposeful extermination of entire groups of people, whether ethnic, national
or religious. There is no doubt that the Armenian people were the victims of a genocide. As painful as it may be, it is therefore necessary to remember the tragic events which started on April 24, 1915. On that day, the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of our century and one of the most important in terms of number of victims, started in what was known at the time as the Ottoman Empire.
In ensuing years, more than 1.5 million innocent victims will be murdered or deported for reasons that remain unclear, their temples and monuments destroyed and the names of their towns changed. They even tried to wipe away all mention of their very existence.
All this simply could not be a series of coincidences. It had to be a carefully planned and methodically executed plan. The Bloc Quebecois believes that humanity must be constantly reminded of the Armenian genocide. Why? So that this type of orchestrated violence against our fellow human beings can never occur again.
We may sometimes think that a genocide is a rare occurrence, that it is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it is still current practice. We cannot and must not forget that, since 1915, many leaders on this planet ordered radical, extremist and immoral measures carried out. The excessive number of genocides that have occurred since then clearly demonstrates this fact.
How can we forget the fate of the Jews and gypsies at the hands of Hitler's regime? How can we forget the fate of the Cambodian people at the hands of the Khmers Rouges, in 1975? How can we forget the fate, in 1994, of more than 500,000 Tutsi, in Rwanda? How can we forget the ethnic cleansing of civilian populations in the former Yugoslavia? How can we forget the fate of the Tibetan population at the hands of the Chinese occupant? How can we forget the reign of terror imposed by Indonesia in East Timor? The list goes on and on.
These few examples, already far too numerous, are most revealing. Millions of people have been assassinated, while millions of others were deported, and are refugees, without a country and without a family. According to the UNHCR, over 27 million individuals currently live outside their country because they had to flee war and repression. These 27 million persons are refugees, in a century that is said to be modern.
It is with horror that, every day, we witness barbaric and inhumane practices that we thought were history. Will the human race ever learn from its mistakes? What is surprising regarding these genocides and their consequences is that, all too often, their authors are never punished. They act with complete impunity. But who is responsible for these deaths? Who is responsible for this suffering?
Given its magnitude, a genocide cannot be the work of mere individuals. The participation, or at least the consent, of government leaders is necessary.
Too frequently in the past, those responsible for these genocides have gone unpunished. A laudable effort is now under way and we can only rejoice in the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. This tribunal, created in 1993 by the UN Security Council and responsible for judging crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, is a step in the right direction, particularly because, in 1995, another international tribunal was created, this time to judge crimes that took place in Rwanda.
These two courts are still in their early days. It is to be hoped that they will soon have real means of rendering justice. In the former Yugoslavia, over fifty charges have been laid, including charges against Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. But a large problem remains and is experienced in the same way in both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. This problem is related to the impossibility of actually laying hands on the criminals, who put themselves under the protection of governments or take refuge in other countries.
War crimes must not, and should never, go unpunished. The international community, including Canada, has a legal and moral obligation to find the criminals. Some will even say that the international tribunal should be able to count on the assistance of an international police force with the power to apprehend suspects wherever they are.
For the time being, the Bloc Quebecois reiterates an opinion it expressed at the time of the Dayton peace accords. The International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague must continue its efforts and judge war criminals. It is important that the tribunal retain its autonomy and that its mandate not be hampered by any amnesties negotiated and granted by the parties in question. Bargaining to have sentences dropped and pardons granted to criminals accused of genocide should not be allowed.
We know that Canada has for a long time been considered one of the world leaders in promoting and protecting human rights. This excellent reputation did not come about simply through the importance accorded to trade.
This enviable reputation is the result of the priorities set by former prime ministers such as Lester B. Pearson, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for having initiated the creation of United Nations peacekeeping forces, and John Diefenbaker, who constantly defended human rights, particularly by taking a stand in 1961 against apartheid in South Africa.
Today, the Bloc Quebecois feels it is high time for the House of Commons to finally recognize the Armenian genocide. If the
motion is rejected, this will confirm our gravest doubts about the real importance the Liberal majority assigns to human rights as an issue. It is not because Canada maintains profitable trade ties with Turkey that we need to close our eyes to a historical reality.
As far back as 1980, the Ontario legislature recognized the Armenian genocide. The Quebec national assembly followed suit in 1985. This past year, in April 1995, the Russian parliament also recognized it. What is the Liberal majority here waiting for?
Even if we often have the impression that money, productivity, and trade are what rules our lives, we must not lose sight of the fact that other values must be taken into consideration when looking at trade relations with other countries. As markets become global, it is important to ensure the respect of human rights.
Since their arrival in power, the Liberals have been thinking they can drift along on Canada's excellent reputation abroad in order to put the emphasis on strictly trade relations. In April 1994 in this House, the Prime Minister himself claimed that his government had a policy to protect human rights and raised the issue in every country it traded with. However, Team Canada's latest trip to Asia revealed just how little importance the Liberal government pays to human rights.
It took a 13 year old youth, Craig Kielburger, to accost the Prime Minister in India and finally bring to light the sad truth of the lack of respect of the fundamental rights of children. This young man's cause immediately caught the sympathy of Quebecers and Canadians thus proving that our fellow citizens are concerned by this important issue of human rights.
This is why the Bloc, like all Quebecers and Canadians, wants all people to be able to grow and develop on this planet without fear of threat to their life and liberty in any way. This is why we must act to prevent the government, through its silence, from becoming a partisan and an accomplice of the indifference and individualism that all too often seem to have become the prerogative of this century.
Governments must sometimes be called to order on the issue of basic human rights. The House of Commons and the government members must take special action to make sure that the Armenian genocide is not forgotten, contrary to all the other acts of violence committed against innocent civilian populations.
This is why I support with all the might and fervour I can muster the motion asking that every year the period of time between April 20 and 27 be set aside to commemorate man's occasional inhumanity to man. Even if it is sometimes easier to forget past events and to chose to plough on, the House of Commons and the Liberal majority must officially recognize the genocide of 1915 to avoid the reoccurrence of tragedies of this kind.
In closing, I would like to salute all our fellow citizens of Armenian origin in their beautiful tongue.
