EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story stated MPs unanimously voted to recognize Russian atrocities as a “genocide.” That was inaccurate — the motion to do so received unanimous consent and was adopted, but did not receive a formal parliamentary vote.
The Canadian House of Commons on Wednesday unanimously backed a motion to recognize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s butchery and brutality during the invasion of Ukraine as genocide.
NDP MP Heather McPherson put forward a motion following question period seeking unanimous consent from all parties to recognize the atrocities as a “genocide.”
The motion was adopted.
The motion is not binding and does not carry direct consequences under broader international law, where the definition is laid out by the United Nations and its International Criminal Court.
Neither of the latter venues has formally recognized Russia’s atrocities as genocide, though investigations on that question have begun in recent weeks amid global outcry as Russia’s retreat from areas of central Ukraine lays bare a trail of suffering and brutality.
McPherson’s motion asked the House of Commons to “recognize that the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people.”
By passing the motion, the House of Commons also recognized that “there is clear and ample evidence of systematic and massive war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against the people of Ukraine by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, directed by President Vladimir Putin and others within the Russian Parliament.”
Those crimes recognized by the House of Commons include “mass atrocities,” “systemic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians and the desecration of corpses,” “forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian territory” and “torture and the imposition of life conditions causing grave suffering.”
It also recognized “widespread instances of physical harm, mental harm and rape.”
More to come.
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