The elected members of the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion which “recognizes that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people”.
The text presented by the New Democrat critic for international affairs, Heather McPherson, obtained the unanimous consent of the members present to be ratified.
The motion mentions that Russia has committed “mass atrocities” and “systematic cases of deliberate murder of Ukrainian civilians”.
MP McPherson was glad her motion passed, saying she had faced attempts to water it down.
She sees this recognition of the presence of genocide as “a first step”. “It is not enough to simply declare. […] Action is needed and there is so much more Canada can do,” she said in a scrum.
For his part, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau estimated on April 13 that “we can increasingly speak of genocide” in Ukraine.
Heather McPherson also called on the Trudeau government to tighten the screws on sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime, as well as to provide more humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
“We need to fund the International Criminal Court and do more to ensure [qu’elle] has all the necessary tools and resources to investigate and hold accountable [ceux qui sont derrière] this genocide,” Ms. McPherson continued.
Sanctions targeting the Donbass
Canada also imposed new sanctions on Wednesday on more than 200 people loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
Global Affairs Canada indicates that these measures target 11 senior officials and 192 other members of the people’s councils of the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, for having supported President Putin’s attacks in this area of Donbass.
Russian forces have supported separatist rebels in Donbass for eight years, following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
This Russian-backed separatist insurgency had already claimed 14,000 lives before the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine on February 24 to take control of the country, an attack that failed in the face of determined and backed Ukrainian resistance. western weapons.
New phase of the war
President Putin has now refocused his war on the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region of Ukraine, backing out of a failed attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, and oust President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government from power.
The Canadian sanctions focus on Russia’s renewed attempt to annex areas of Donbass, targeting those trying to support the next phase of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which has been going on for more than two months.
“Canada will not sit idly by and watch President Putin and his accomplices attempt to redraw Ukraine’s borders with impunity. International law must be respected,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement.
“Canada is using all the tools at its disposal to ensure that the rules-based international order is upheld and that accomplices to violations of international law are held accountable for their crimes. »
Canada has imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 individuals or entities from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus since the February 24 invasion, bringing the total number to 1,400 since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Use of frozen assets
Minister Joly indicated on Tuesday that the Canadian government was preparing to introduce a bill that would allow the frozen assets to be used to help the victims of this war.
“We are looking for the ability to not only seize, but allow for the confiscation of assets of sanctioned individuals and entities and allow us to compensate victims with the proceeds. These changes would make Canada’s sanctions regime the first in the G7 to allow these measures,” Ms. Joly said in a statement.
Senator Ratna Omidvar introduced this bill, which is currently in third reading in the Senate.
Ms. Joly spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Anita Anand will be in Washington later this week for in-person meetings with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.
Last week, Canada added 14 more Russians to its sanctions list, including Vladimir Putin’s two daughters — Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35.