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 benches.
As recently as last spring, customary precautions surrounded the use of the concept by deputies. Anxious to use the right word, some spoke of a “possible genocide”, cited the accusations presented before international tribunals or stuck to talking about the importance of “preventing a genocide”.
This is a thing of the past for the elected officials of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Already, in June, MP Alexandre Boulerice stood up in the House to ask: “What are the liberals doing to stop this genocide? » The Quebec elected official spent part of the summer lending a hand to his party’s candidate in the Montreal riding of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, Craig Sauvé. The latter promised voters in this by-election to “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 animated the debates in the House of Commons.
The word “genocide” was thrown around no less than 31 times in the House, in different contexts, during an emergency debate on the crisis in Lebanon on Tuesday evening. This debate was launched by NDP MP Heather McPherson in these terms: “For the past year, we have witnessed the horrific violence of the genocide perpetrated by [le premier ministre d’Israël, Benjamin] Netanyahu, in Gaza, in response to the terrible Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. »
« [Le Canada] contributes to the problem by refusing to stand up to Netanyahu’s genocidal far-right government,” added his colleague Niki Ashton — one of 14 mentions of the word by NDP elected officials.
No crime, according to conservatives
The assessment of events in Gaza by elected officials of the Conservative Party of Canada could not be more different. “The International Court of Justice has never recognized genocide,” recalled Quebec MP Luc Berthold on Tuesday evening. “None of the credible reports I have read indicate that the State of Israel has committed war crimes or committed serious violations of customary international law,” Ontario MP Michael goes so far as to say. Chong.
In fact, the dozen references to the term “genocide” made by conservatives on Tuesday mainly served to qualify Israel’s enemies. “Resistance to the genocidal regime in Tehran and all 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 the use of the word. “It is too early to say that there is indeed a genocide on the part of the Israeli government,” MP Stéphane Bergeron explained in the House last spring.
He did not contradict this position in a statement sent to the Duty this week “The International Court of Justice [CIJ] 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 opinion, what is happening in Gaza is extremely serious. »
Contradictions among the liberals
The Liberal Party of Canada cannot boast of having such a clear position. Even though the Liberals are the government in place in Ottawa, they have made numerous 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 his part, read in the House the letter from a citizen who affirmed that “after almost a year of genocide in the Gaza Strip, we know that Israel places no value on life or to civil infrastructure”.
When Montreal MP Anthony Housefather speaks, it is on the contrary with a desire to set the record straight. According to him, the ICJ’s statements have been distorted by those who see 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 Tuesday to mark the Jewish New Year.
Officially, the Government of Canada 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 calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and denounces illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We also respect what the International Court of Justice mentioned,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, during a press scrum last week.
Minister Joly’s office did not respond to repeated requests for interviews on this subject sent by Duty since last spring.
