Liberals vote against declaring ISIS Atrocities as Genocide

Liberals vote against declaring ISIS Atrocities as Genocide

Postby Oscar » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:19 am

Trudeau, Liberal MPs Vote Against Tory Motion Declaring ISIS Atrocities As Genocide

[ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/06/14 ... a-politics ]

June 14, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons Tuesday to vote against a Conservative motion declaring that the atrocities of the so-called Islamic State constitute genocide.

His decision appeared to back up what Trudeau told the House minutes earlier: that partisan politicians shouldn't determine what is or isn't genocide.

The Opposition motion — tabled by interim Tory leader Rona Ambrose — won the support of New Democrats, Bloc MPs, and four Liberal backbenchers: Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Anthony Housefather, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, and Karen Ludwig.

It was defeated by the Grit majority in a vote of 166 to 139, sparking shouts of "Shame!" from some Tories.

In a heated question period shortly before the vote, Ambrose hammered Trudeau for hiding behind "weasel words" and lacking "moral clarity" when it comes to the terror group.

She said that while allies in the U.S. House of Representatives and European Union state the obvious — that "ISIS' crimes against religious minorities, women and children, gays and lesbians" are genocide — the Liberal government refuses do the same.

"If all our allies can find the moral resolve why can't our prime minister?" she asked.

'Objective' determination needed: Trudeau

Trudeau responded that Liberals "strongly condemn" the actions of the terror group and have "formally requested" the United Nations Security Council make a determination if they constitute genocide.

"We don't feel that politicians should be weighing in on this first and foremost," he said. "Determinations of genocide need to be made in an objective, responsible way."

Ambrose called that position a "low-point" for the Liberal party and a "dark spot" on Canada's human rights record.

When he was pressed again on the case of thousands of Yazidi girls being murdered or turned into sex slaves, the prime minister was resolute that determinations of genocide must be done objectively on the international stage.

"We will not trivialize the importance of the word genocide by not respecting formal engagements around that word," he said.

But Trudeau also added a dig at the Tories who have long argued he is soft on this issue.

"I will take no lessons in playing politics from … a former government that used footage of ISIL executions in an attack ad against me," he said, referencing a wildly controversial 2015 video that appears to have since been scrubbed online.

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The full text of Ambrose's defeated motion:

That the House agree that ISIS is responsible for: (a) crimes against humanity aimed at groups such as Christians, Yezidis, and Shia Muslims, as well as other religious and ethnic minorities in Syria and Iraq; (b) utilizing rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war and enslaving women and girls; and (c) targeting gays and lesbians who have been tortured and murdered; and, as a consequence, that the House strongly condemn these atrocities and declare that these crimes constitute genocide.
Oscar
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