In Ottawa, more elected officials call the situation in Gaza a “genocide”

Photo: Said Khatib Archives Agence France-Presse An aerial view showed mourners watching as medical staff prepared the bodies of 47 Palestinians, who were abducted before being returned by Israel, during a mass funeral in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in March 2024.

A new partisan line took shape this fall. More and more elected officials have spoken out to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” perpetrated by Israel, but the accusation never comes from the Conservative or Bloc Québécois benches.

As recently as last spring, MPs were cautious about using the concept. Careful to use the right word, some spoke of a “possible genocide,” cited the accusations brought before international tribunals, or stuck to talking about the importance of “preventing genocide.”

That’s a thing of the past for New Democratic Party (NDP) MPs. Back in June, MP Alexandre Boulerice stood up in the House to ask: “What are the Liberals doing to stop this genocide” ? The Quebec MP spent part of the summer lending a hand to his party’s candidate in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, Craig Sauvé. Sauvé promised voters in this by-election that he would “stop the genocide in Gaza.” The leader, Jagmeet Singh, endorsed this choice of words.

Since then, the accusation that this ultimate crime is underway in Gaza has been a hot topic of debate in the House of Commons.

The word “genocide” was thrown around no fewer than 31 times in the House, in different contexts, during an emergency debate on the crisis in Lebanon on Tuesday night. The debate was launched by NDP MP Heather McPherson, who said: “For the past year, we have witnessed the horrific violence of genocide perpetrated by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in Gaza in response to the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7. »

« [Canada] is contributing to the problem by refusing to stand up to Netanyahu’s far-right, genocidal government,” added her colleague Niki Ashton — one of 14 mentions of the word by NDP MPs.

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No crime, according to the Conservatives

The assessment of the events in Gaza by elected members of the Conservative Party of Canada could not be more different. “The International Court of Justice has never recognized genocide,” Quebec MP Luc Berthold recalled Tuesday evening. “None of the credible reports that I have read indicate that the State of Israel has committed war crimes or that it has committed serious violations of customary international law,” Ontario MP Michael Chong goes so far as to say.

In fact, the dozen or so references to the term “genocide” made by the Conservatives on Tuesday were mainly used to describe Israel’s enemies. “Resistance to the genocidal regime in Tehran and all of its terrorist proxies, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others, cannot be left to Israel alone,” said Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner.

The Bloc Québécois, for its part, completely avoids using the word. “It’s too early to say that there is indeed genocide on the part of the Israeli government,” explained MP Stéphane Bergeron in the House last spring.

He did not contradict this position in a statement sent to Devoirthis week “The International Court of Justice [ICJ] is currently investigating allegations of genocide. We recognize the jurisdiction of the Court, which has all the elements in hand to determine whether this is indeed the case, under international law. In our view, what is happening in Gaza is extremely serious.”

Contradictions among the Liberals

The Liberal Party of Canada cannot claim to have such a clear position. Even though the Liberals form the government in Ottawa, they have made a series of contradictory statements about Israel and its possible culpability.

Ontario MP Salma Zahid proposed on Tuesday to send a message to the Israeli government by recognizing a Palestinian state: “Canada will not remain silent in the face of genocide!” »

His colleague Iqra Khalid, for her part, read in the House a letter from a citizen who stated that “after nearly a year of genocide in the Gaza Strip, we know that Israel places no value on civilian life or infrastructure.”

When Montreal MP Anthony Housefather spoke, it was, on the contrary, in a desire to set the record straight. According to him, the ICJ’s statements had been distorted by those who saw them as proof of a “plausible genocide.” “I pray for a world where Israel can defend itself against the missiles of Iran and Hezbollah without being condemned,” he added on Tuesday to mark the Jewish New Year.

Officially, the Canadian government is waiting for “irrefutable evidence” to accept the idea that a genocide could take place in Gaza, a position that has not changed since January. Ottawa is calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and denouncing illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We also respect what the International Court of Justice has said,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said during a press scrum last week.

Minister Joly’s office has not responded to repeated requests for interviews on this subject sent by Le Devoir since last spring.