Indigenous genocide finding hangs over Canada's Myanmar
court intervention Risky for Canada to back preventing genocide abroad but not heed calls at home, expert says
Cries of the pot calling the kettle black are emerging after Canada joined an international genocide lawsuit against Myanmar because the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls said Canada's Indigenous Peoples are genocide victims.
Canada and the Netherlands announced with great fanfare this week that they were joining the genocide application launched by Gambia against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice in The Hague as interveners.
Gambia filed the case last fall on behalf of the 57 Muslim countries in the Organization of Islamic Co-operation under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
More than 850,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state after being targeted by Myanmar security forces, who killed thousands while burning villages and engaging in ethnic cleansing and gang rape.
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne and his Dutch counterpart Stef Blok said their countries were joining the case to assist Gambia with "complex legal issues" in the case.
But Bruno Gélinas-Faucher, a University of Montreal international law expert who has worked at the ICJ, said Canada's presence could cause delays and complications for the Gambian case because of an international legal axiom known as the "clean-hand" principle.
"There's a risk for Canada to be perceived as adopting a contradictory position of leading a very active foreign policy based on prevention of genocide abroad, and at home, not responding to fully for the calls for justice made by the [inquiry]," he said.
"I think there is a very important element for Canada not to be seen as putting forth this contradictory position in the world, and to be coherent — have a coherent foreign policy that is in line with its domestic policy as well."
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