Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he thought it was “absolutely right” for more people to use the word genocide to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but he himself stopped using the word.
“There are official processes around the definition of genocide, but I think it is absolutely right for more people to speak and use the word genocide in relation to what Russia is doing, what Vladimir Putin has done,” Trudeau told a news conference in Laval, Que.
Trudeau cited Russian military attacks on civilians, including targets of health facilities and train stations, as well as sexual violence in the conflict. He also said Russia was attacking “Ukrainian identity and culture”.
“These are all things that are war crimes for which Putin is responsible, these are all things that are crimes against humanity,” he said.
Trudeau said the Canadian government is responding, including petitioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged Russian war crimes and sending RCMP investigators to the ICC.
WATCH Trudeau comments on “genocide” in Ukraine:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agrees that the war in Ukraine is genocide
For the first time, Trudeau agreed that the war in Ukraine was genocide, as more and more evidence was gathered during Russia’s ongoing invasion. 1:08
Trudeau was answering a question about the use of the word by US President Joe Biden to describe Russia’s activities in Ukraine.
“Your family budget, your ability to fill your tank, none of this should depend on whether the dictator declares war and commits genocide halfway around the world,” Biden told a news conference in Iowa on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Biden said he used the word because “it is becoming increasingly clear that Putin is simply trying to erase the idea that he may even be Ukrainian.”
Biden said there was growing evidence that Russia’s actions constituted genocide, but noted that his use of the word was not a legal declaration.
“We will leave the lawyers to decide internationally whether he meets the requirements or not,” he said.
US President Joe Biden spoke while visiting a POET bioprocessing plant in Menlo, Iowa, on Tuesday. Biden used the word “genocide” for the first time to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine. (Al Drago / Reuters)
What qualifies as genocide?
The UN definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention includes both physical and mental elements.
The first includes: “Killing members of the group, causing grievous bodily or mental harm to members of the group, intentionally inflicting on the group living conditions designed to lead to its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births in the group “And” Forced transfer of children from one group to another “.
But the mental element is that genocide must include clear intent.
“Intention is the most difficult element to determine,” a UN article on genocide said.
“In order to constitute genocide, the perpetrators must have a proven intention to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction is not enough, nor is the intention to simply disperse a group.”
The law also requires victims to be targeted, the article said.
Earlier, Trudeau said the killings and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls in Canada were genocide, agreeing with a national investigation.
Trudeau was absent from a parliamentary vote last year on whether China’s treatment of the Uighur minority meets the UN’s definition of genocide. Then-Foreign Minister Marc Garnot abstained. The proposal was accepted 266-0.
A man leaves the UN headquarters building in New York on March 1. International law requires that the intent to genocide be demonstrated in any UN declaration of genocide. (Carlo Allegri / Reuters)
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