March 21, 2016

Canada’s two primary left-wing wing parties – The Liberals  and the New Democrats – are denying that ISIS’s ongoing barbarous massacre of Christian minorities in the Levant amounts to genocide.

Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry officially acknowledged that ISIS is in fact carrying out genocide in the Middle East. His Canadian counterpart, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, has arrived at a different conclusion.

Last Friday, Dion’s press secretary said, “Canada strongly condemns the crimes perpetrated by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including those committed against religious and ethnic minorities.”

Besides Canada’s governing Liberal Party, the socialist New Democrats followed suit in denying ISIS’s acts of genocide. Unable to distinguish between law enforcement and war, Foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière called ISIS’s actions “war-crimes” while calling for “investigations” and “prosecutions” of Islamic State terrorists.

“ISIS has committed horrible acts against civilians, and from the beginning of our involvement in Iraq and Syria, the NDP has called for Canada to help uphold international law by providing support for the investigation and prosecution of war crimes in the region,” said Laverdière.

The New Democrat Party of Canada had strongly supported ending Canada’s mission against the Islamic State. Party Leader Thomas Mulcair has said, “We will immediately stop the bombing mission and bring those troops home.” This partially explains the party’s unwillingness to recognize ISIS’s brutality as genocide, as it makes military withdrawal more politically palatable.

In a statement to the Globe and Mail, Canadian Conservative Party Interim Leader Rona Ambrose strongly recommended that the Liberal Party of Canada follow John Kerry in recognizing ISIS’s perpetration of genocide against Christian minorities.

“My hope is that Canada will recognize that [genocide], just as the U.S. did yesterday, and then act on it, said Ambrose. “Now is the time for the world to come together to help the groups of people that are being slaughtered.”

The Canadian left’s disinclination to unequivocally recognize and condemn ethnic cleansing of Christian minorities by Islamic zealots is nothing new. Back in 2004, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper – then in opposition – was a leading voice in Canada’s recognition of the Ottoman Turk’s barbaric genocide of Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Christians in the early 20th century.

Conversely, former Liberal Party leader and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin was not only absent from the vote, he actually ordered his cabinet to vote against the recognition of the Armenian genocide.