Country would join EU Parliament after changing its military mission

OTTAWA (CCN)



Aid to the Church in Need has asked the Canadian government to join the EU Parliament in its Feb. 4 resolution recognizing ISIS/ISIL or Daesh persecution of Christians as genocide.

Canada, however, shows no signs of doing so.

On Feb. 8, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced changes to its Middle East military mission that included the withdrawal of jets flying combat missions; an increase of military personnel to train fighters and gather intelligence; and a commitment over three years of $840 million in direct humanitarian assistance and $270 million towards building capacity of countries hosting refugees.

Trudeau made no reference to genocide in the region or to the EU resolution.

A spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada did not single out genocide in the Middle East in a statement to CCN Feb. 8.

“Canada continues to be concerned by the violence perpetrated by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against civilians, including members of religious and ethnic minorities,” said Diana Khaddaj in an email. “Canada is committed to preventing and halting genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Canada is also committed to holding perpetrators of such serious international crimes to account.”

The EU Parliament’s Resolution 2091 (2016) states: “the individuals acting in the name of the terrorist organization which calls itself Daesh […] have perpetrated acts of genocide and other grave crimes punishable under international law.”

Religious Freedom Ambassador Andrew Bennett tweeted Feb 4: “EU Parliamentarians call for urgent action to protect religious minorities against ISIS,” but the fate of his office and position remains uncertain.

Aid to the Church in Need Canada’s national director Marie-Claude Lalonde invited Canada to follow the EU example and take a public position defending the rights of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria in a Feb. 3 letter to the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister.

In a news release, Lalonde pointed out Iraq had 1.5 million Christians in 2004 but today only 250,000 remain. A similar population remains in Syria, which had 1.1 million Christians in 2011.

“International law imposes on states and on the international community the obligation to prevent genocide, to defend those groups that are the object of genocide and to convict and punish those responsible,” the Aid to the Church in Need release said.

Anti-terrorism expert John Thompson said “no obligations will kick in” after the EU resolution and “we’re not going to see ISIS prisoners dragged in front of the Hague.”

The Strategic Capital Intelligence Group vice president of business intelligence said he suspects Canada’s Liberal government will not support the resolution, because “they are infected with a post-modernist view” that mistakes Christians in the Middle East with a 2,000 year history such as the Assyrian Christians, with the “most obnoxious of Protestant evangelicals and there’s no sympathy for them.”

“A general expression that genocide is bad is something they’re prepared to do, but specifically saying they’re prepared to save Middle Eastern Christians makes them feel all icky.”