Calling out Myanmar’s leader

There is precious little Canada can do to stop the government of Myanmar from carrying out the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of that country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

With little economic clout in the Asian country, Canada is limited to joining the chorus of voices in the international community demanding an end to this brutal, systematic campaign of violence.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did this on Wednesday, though pessimists might say moral outrage from far away seldom matters in such crises.

But the Canadian government can, in fact, do something more meaningful to express to the world in the strongest possible terms its opposition to what United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is labelling a “catastrophic” situation.

The Canadian Parliament should, at its first opportunity, revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship granted in 2012 to Myanmar’s de facto leader and one-time champion of human rights — Aung San Suu Kyi.

Since the Myanmar army’s campaign against the Rohingya began on Aug. 25, soldiers and civilian mobs have torched Rohingya villages.

They have raped Rohingya women and killed hundreds of Rohingya people, including children. And they have sent nearly 380,000 Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh.

In that time, Suu Kyi has either remained silent on the atrocities or brazenly defended the government’s action as a necessary response to Islamist extremists who attacked military and police outposts.

The immoral response of this Nobel Peace Prize winner and a woman considered a secular saint has confounded people around the world.

Suu Kyi was a pro-democracy activist, a defender of minorities who endured 12 years of house arrest or prison imposed by Myanmar’s military dictatorship.

Praised around the world for decades, she now wields real political power.

Though she does not control the military, she has been granted the post of state counselor, the equivalent of being prime minister.

In that role, she has acted as a craven apologist for government atrocities that are as disgusting as they are intolerable.

Pope Francis, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other moral leaders have voiced their dismay that Suu Kyi won’t stand up for the Rohingya.

Just as deplorable is her refusal to allow UN investigators into Rakhine state to follow up on the reports of widespread military abuses.

That Islamist rebels threaten Myanmar’s security is undeniable. Yet under the cover of battling terrorists, the government of Myanmar, with its Buddhist majority, is relentlessly persecuting the country’s Muslim minority.

Canada can do more than simply repeat the “deep concerns” Trudeau expressed in a telephone conversation with Suu Kyi this week.

It can take away Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship, something granted to only six other people. Many Canadians are calling for this measure. It would be a symbolic gesture, to be sure. But it would tell her and the world she has violated the values of peace, tolerance and democracy that this country stands for.

By her own action and inaction, Suu Kyi has lost the privilege to be considered one of us.