Canadian MP submits bill supporting genocide exhibit in Ottawa (03/07/99)

Canadian MP submits bill supporting genocide exhibit in Ottawa

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Sarkis Assadourian, a Canadian parliamentarian of Armenian background, has taken the bold step of addressing some of the controversy generated during Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's January visit to the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. On February 15 Mr. Assadourian filed a private members' bill that provides for a genocide exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) in the nation's capital.

Mr. Assadourian, the Liberal Party's MP for the Brampton-Centre riding in Ontario officially submitted the proposal, registered as Bill C-479, for consideration in the House of Commons in Ottawa, and it duly received first reading.

Its intent is to "mandate the establishment of an exhibit in the Canadian Museum of Civilization that recognizes the crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated during the 20th century."

If passed by Canada's federal legislature, the bill would become the Recognition of Crimes Against Humanity Act. The draft stipulates in its first subsection: "The board of trustees of the [CMC] shall, not later than two years after this section comes into force, cause to be established in the [CMC] an exhibit that recognizes the crimes against humanity perpetrated during the 20th century and acts as a reminder of the inhumanity of people towards one another."

The second subsection stipulates: "The expression 'crimes against humanity' means crimes against humanity as defined by the United Nations."

The process

Mr. Assadourian told The Weekly in an interview on February 24 that he intends to secure the support of 100 colleagues in the House of Commons to avoid a "lottery" legislation-winnowing process, ensuring that his bill would pass directly to a Private Business Committee hearing.

As of February 24 Mr. Assadourian had gathered 84 signatures on his official petition and expressed optimism that he would lock up the remaining 16 by March 1 or 2. The MP said the 84 supporters include members from the ruling Liberal Party, the Reform Party (the official opposition), the Bloc Québécois, the Progressive Conservatives, the New Democratic Party and independents.

The parliamentarian explained that if his petition bid is successful, the committee will decide by September (perhaps earlier) whether Bill C-479 is "a votable item."

If so, it will be returned to the House, be subject to a second reading, three hours of debate and a vote. If it is deemed a "non-votable item" by the committee, a second reading in Parliament will be followed by a one-hour discussion, but no vote.

Parliamentarian's background

First elected in 1993 from Toronto's Don Valley-North riding, Mr. Assadourian was returned to office in 1997 in Brampton. In his first term Mr. Assadourian was a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Rights, and from 1994 to 1995 he was a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, serving on a subcommittee that investigated immigration consultants.

The 51-year-old Syrian-born MP presently serves on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, as well as the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Mr. Assadourian is chairman for the Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group and a member of the Canada-Baltic States Parliamentary Friendship Group. He is also a member of the executive for the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association.

PM trip controversy

Controversy arose when the Canadian Polish Congress (CPC) formally protested the prime minister's decision not to include members of their community in Mr. Chrétien's January 24 commemorations of victims at the notorious Nazi extermination center at Auschwitz.

According to a report by Paul Lungen in the January 31 issue of the Toronto-based Canadian Jewish News (CJN) weekly, CPC President Lucien Conrad told a press conference in Toronto that he was "deeply disappointed with the exclusion of representatives of the CPC during Chrétien's visit to Auschwitz."

"We are particularly dismayed by the insensitivity demonstrated by the PMO [Prime Ministers' Office]," Mr. Conrad was quoted as saying. "The CPC feels the inclusion of a Polish Canadian delegation during the prime minister's visit to Auschwitz would have been a singular opportunity to promote better understanding between Canada's ethno-cultural communities, specifically members of Canada's Jewish and Polish minorities."

Mr. Lungen also quoted Ala Gettlich, secretary-general of the Canadian Polish Congress: "Personally, I was very hurt that my prime minister would go to my country of origin and not notify us that he's going to the place where my grandfather was killed."

The CJN report noted that both Polish community leaders emphasized they had no quarrel with the Jewish community or with the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC).

"We have a problem with the PMO [for its] lack of sensitivity, understanding and total disregard for the feelings of our community," Ms. Gettlich was quoted as saying.

Press coverage

Mr. Assadourian received advance publicity for his bill from Globe and Mail reporter Jeff Sallot, whose article, headlined "PM urged to set up genocide museum," ran in the daily's January 27 issue.

Mr. Sallot wrote of the MP's suggestion that Mr. Chrétien "can defuse the controversy surrounding his visit to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz by announcing plans for a museum in Canada to honor the members of Jewish, Ukrainian, Armenian and other victims of genocides in this century."

The Globe pointed to Mr. Assadourian's recommendation that the Canadian government should "establish a national museum to remember all of the victims of racism, including the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who perished in the early 1900s at the hands of the Ottoman empire."

Mr. Sallot added that Canadian Jewish Congress President Moshe Ronen "has said the idea of a genocide museum to commemorate all victims is a good one, but it should not substitute for a distinct memorial museum for the Jewish Holocaust."

Mr. Sallot then related the MP's contention that the government "shouldn't build [a museum] for a single ethnic or cultural group."

Mr. Assadourian told The Weekly that "the Jewish Holocaust is unique, and deserves commemoration as such, but other genocides and crimes that were committed in this century occurred in equally unique circumstances - in Ukraine, in Cambodia, in Rwanda."

Prior to Mr. Chrétien's departure for Europe on January 22, the national headquarters of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress issued a press release in which President Evhen Czolij was quoted as saying: "We hope the prime minister's visit to Ukraine will translate into his personal support for a federally funded Genocide Museum in Ottawa, a permanent educational center that will honor the memory of the victims of all genocides of the 20th century."

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