Hon. Roméo Antonius Dallaire:

Honourable senators, I rise today because a motion similar to this one was presented in the other place and was passed unanimously. I hope to influence honourable senators in a similar fashion today.

Also, we received today the visit of the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in Genocide Prevention who spoke to the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group on genocide prevention this morning and was also a witness before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in the other place today. He will speak again tomorrow at other venues, in addition to staff.

I would like to speak on this motion this afternoon.

Honourable senators, I would like to take advantage of a rare opportunity we have to remember the victims of mass atrocities and honour their memory through concerted action.

I will also indicate that 16 years ago today, the Security Council finally commenced the debate on whether the slaughter in Rwanda was a genocide.

As you know, I have moved a motion to establish a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Mass Atrocities on April 23 annually. This motion is very similar to a motion put forward in the other place. April 23 is the birthday of our 14th Prime Minister, the distinguished Lester B. Pearson, and was chosen in recognition of his commitment to peace and international cooperation to end crimes against humanity.

As Canada's foremost statesman, Mr. Pearson ensured that the nation's opinion was not only heard, but taken into account. His career showed that a middle power such as Canada can carry a great deal of weight on the international scene when talk is combined with action.

For more than 20 years at the Department of External Affairs, Mr. Pearson played a key role in building Canada's international image. From his visionary strategy for keeping the peace during the Suez crisis in 1956 — which saw the establishment of peacekeeping, that much-vaunted Canadian institution — to his involvement in defending our neighbours, friends and allies through the creation of NATO, Mr. Pearson became the best-known Canadian in diplomatic circles.

When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 in recognition of his efforts during the Suez crisis, the Nobel Committee said that he had, and I quote, "saved the world." Thanks to Mr. Pearson's leadership in Canada and elsewhere in the world, that time became a turning point in the promotion and defence of the core values Canadians hold dear.

Although Mr. Pearson is known mainly as the father of peacekeeping, history shows that this dynamic, pragmatic man was a sportsman and even a soldier, an intellectual and a statesman, a politician and a prime minister. His outstanding achievements are proof of his determined pursuit of idealism in action — achievements that Canada badly needs to repeat.

He believed in a dynamic and tough diplomatic corps, and in a large military force that could be deployed to help maintain peace and security beyond our borders.

However, before Mr. Pearson became involved in politics in Canada and had the opportunity develop our international conscience, our community of nations witnessed a terrible, heinous and avoidable tragedy, on a very disturbing scale, but this was not the first, and would certainly not be the last.

Our own nation's early relationship with the Holocaust is not a particularly proud chapter in Canadian history. At the 1938 Evian Conference, held to discuss the "problem" of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, Canada steadfastly refused to increase its quota and accept more Jewish immigrants.

More disturbing was the decision in 1939, when the SS St. Louis, a passenger ship carrying 907 German Jews, was turned away from Canadian shores. Upon receiving its docking refusal, the SS St. Louis was forced to return to Europe, where most of its passengers were condemned to perish in Hitler's death camps.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Canada and the international community recognized the horrific consequences of their indifference and vowed never again to allow systematic killings on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, race or religion.

It was a pivotal moment when, in 1948, the new United Nations General Assembly — an organization that Mr. Pearson presided over — adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, declaring that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, was a crime under international law which the parties undertook to prevent and to punish.

In 1946, the General Assembly defined genocide as:

. . . a denial of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings.

It went on to say:

. . . such denial of the right shocks the conscience of mankind . . . the punishment of the crime of genocide is a matter of international concern.

Lofty rhetoric, indeed; but far from heeding this international call to action — one expressly demanded as an obligation under international law, a legal obligation Canada acknowledged when it ratified the Genocide Convention in September 1952. How have the nations like Canada that ostensibly stand as beacons equality, of justice, of fairness, responded to atrocities in places like Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda?

There have been some successes, but there have also been too many failures, cases where empty rhetoric is the only response. The platitudes are used to appease the international community's collective moral conscience in the face of inaction. Ongoing atrocities in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan continue to test our resolve and our willingness to robustly defend those at risk of becoming victims of mass atrocities.

The perpetrators and victims of mass atrocities know all too well what this lack of concern means. Perpetrators believe that they have carte blanche to continue carrying out their reprehensible crimes, and victims realize that powerful nations, those that claim to be defenders of decency and the supposedly unshakeable and inalienable rights of individuals, consider their lives to be of little value.

Recognizing genocide is just the first step. Unless we take appropriate action, we are just playing political semantics when we use the term "genocide." I have experienced this personally, and I have felt the consequences ever since.

I once asked whether we are all human or whether some of us are more human than others. If we believe that all human beings are human, how do we prove it? We can only prove it by our actions. That is the only way we can do our part to help humanity evolve and to stop crimes against humanity. There are many ways to bridge the gap between good intentions and concerted efforts on local, national and international levels.

However, for the transformation to take place, we have to introduce conceptual and normative changes. We have to understand that taking action to curb mass atrocities is in Canada's best interest.

There is no doubt that saving the lives of innocent people in the next Rwanda, the next Kosovo, will also save lives in Canada. Our safety is increasingly threatened by crises that we allow to persist in faraway places.

Because more and more business people, tourists and humanitarian workers are travelling abroad, epidemics and infectious diseases that erupt in countries we once ignored, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Zimbabwe, now pose a greater risk to our public health.

Moreover, mass atrocities undermine political stability in entire regions. In a global economy, that threatens our economic prosperity.

Our international security interests now intersect with our humanitarian interests more than ever before. We have to create a broader definition of our national interests, not only to help at-risk states, but also to help ourselves and protect ourselves so that we can do more to rid the world of mass atrocities.

The key to mobilizing the international community in order to prevent mass atrocities is to secure national support. It has to start at home. Prevention and the fight must start here: Canadians definitely need leaders who are determined to push this crucial issue. Solid and convincing leadership from our political and legislative authorities will strengthen the public's will to intervene. May God send us these leaders, and soon.

The leader of our country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has a unique opportunity to make the prevention of mass atrocities a priority for Canada. In addition, Mr. Harper has an unmatched opportunity to align himself strategically with the Obama administration, which took concrete measures to make genocide prevention a "national security priority." I was with the team at the White House two weeks ago mapping out our positions.

During the Holocaust remembrance ceremony in April 2009, President Barack Obama declared:

Today, and every day, we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, to confront these scourges. . .to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take — whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur. That is my commitment as President.

He does not beat around the bush. He is a very determined man.

In his annual threat assessment presented to the United States Congress in February 2010, America's Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, said:

. . . within the past three years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan all suffered mass killing episodes through violence, starvation, or deaths in prison camps. . . . as well as inexcusably high rape statistics. . . . Looking ahead over the next five years, a number of countries in Africa and Asia are at significant risk for a new outbreak of mass killing.

Furthermore, recognizing the national security problems presented by genocides and mass atrocities, the U.S. Quadrennial Defence Review, published in February 2010, stated that the United States Department of Defence should be prepared to provide the President with options for "preventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad."

President Obama is drawing upon the energy of the Albright-Cohen Genocide Prevention Task Force and a special recommendation by the Will to Intervene project to prevent mass atrocities — in passing, I would like to salute Doctor Shaw with whom I had the pleasure of working at Concordia University and who is present in the gallery today. The U.S. President has created a new, inter-institutional policy group on reconstruction and stabilization within the National Security Committee that will help ensure that the prevention of mass atrocities receives greater attention from the American government as a whole.

Despite these efforts, no one country can single-handedly resolve the problem of mass atrocities. The credibility of our country and its ability to cooperate with our allies are on the line. To be effective and responsible leaders, Canada and its politicians must be at the forefront and create our own policies and programs for preventing mass atrocities.

How can we prevent genocide and other crimes against humanity? That is a good question. Once again, we must transform our commitment to abstract principles into concrete action. We must insist that our laws and national policies reflect and support our international political and legal obligations. It takes more than just signing conventions in Geneva. We must also pass laws in Ottawa. We must provide our citizens and organizations with more powerful tools in order to exert pressure on future governments given that moral pressure is often not enough to ensure that politicians respect our international obligations.

We cannot be proud of that.

These are not high-minded pleas rooted in fanciful idealism. They are echoed by our strongest allies. They are based on scholarly research. They are supported across party lines.

In the 2010 Speech from the Throne, Mr. Harper committed his government to standing up for what is right in the world, including global security, human rights, maternal and child health care, financial market regulation, and international climate change. In many ways, I found this to be very encouraging; but, as always, it is the leap from words to action that really matters.

As the Prime Minister is no doubt aware, standing up for what is right depends on leadership, and it involves standing up for those whose voices have been silenced by the din of hatred, ignorance and intolerance. As empowered leaders, committed humanitarians and concerned citizens, we must give the marginalized and the disempowered reason to hope. Hope will come from adopting a new approach and from recognizing that the prevention of mass atrocities should be a national priority of the Government of Canada.

Resources must be assigned to construct appropriate long-term strategies to prevent mass atrocities by using Canada's foreign aid; our diplomatic experience, if we ever plan to rebuild our diplomatic corps; and our military capabilities. These resources can be realigned in such incredible missions that go beyond the use of force to the educated use of force in restraint in advancing human rights and the protection of the innocent.

Our government must recognize the nexus between Canada's national interest and the prevention of mass atrocities, and pledge to work with our allies to protect the voiceless and powerless from massive human rights violations.

Time is limited, so I will close with the following: In recognizing April 23 as an annual national day of remembrance and action on mass atrocities, it is my hope that all Canadians will be provided with a regular opportunity to remember victims of mass atrocities; to remember the lessons learned after the Holocaust, after Bosnia, after Cambodia, and after Rwanda; and to push forward with efforts to make Canada an international leader in the prevention of mass atrocities and not the international follower we seem to have become for some undefined reason.

Honourable senators, I will quote from the conclusion of a book I wrote, called Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. "The failure of humanity in Rwanda" encompasses the whole of humanity having failed the Rwandans. I quote.

As soldiers we have been used to moving mountains to protect our own sovereignty or risks to our way of life. In the future we must be prepared to move beyond national self-interest to spend our resources and spill our blood for humanity. We have lived through centuries of enlightenment, reason, revolution, industrialization, and globalization. No matter how idealistic the aim sounds, this new century must become the Century of Humanity, when we as human beings rise above race, creed, colour, religion and national self-interest and put the good of humanity above the good of our own tribe. For the sake of the children and of our future. Peux ce que veux. Allons-y.

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