PM muses about Suu Kyi citizenship

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. • Justin Trudeau’s United Nations mission ended in a human-rights flourish Wednesday as the prime minister formally added his name to a multilateral calling-out of Venezuela and mused openly about stripping the honorary Canadian status from Myanmar’s de facto leader.

Asked whether the oncecelebrated Burmese reformer Aung San Suu Kyi should be stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship for failing to speak out against the atrocities being committed against the Rohingya of Myanmar, Trudeau said, “That’s one of the questions that certainly Parliament can reflect on.

“It was Parliament that granted her honorary citizenship, and that’s a conversation that we certainly could have.”

Last week, the House of Commons adopted a motion to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as genocide and to endorse a UN fact-finding mission outlining crimes against humanity by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya and other minorities. The report documented the systematic targeting of civilian Rohingya by the military, including mass gang rape, sexual slavery and the razing of hundreds of villages.

The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar will not be fixed whether Canada revokes Suu Kyi’s citizenship or allows her to keep it, Trudeau cautioned.

THAT’S A CONVERSATION THAT WE CERTAINLY COULD HAVE.

The federal government, he added, is focused on solutions “to put an end” to the ongoing crisis. Ottawa has pledged $300 million over three years to support displaced people and other vulnerable populations.

Canada also joined a group of South American nations on Wednesday in formally referring the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro to The Hague-based International Criminal Court, a move aimed at placing the socialist regime under investigation for alleged crimes against humanity.

The move — Canada’s first referral to the court and the first time member nations have referred a fellow member state — comes as Venezuela spirals ever deeper into a worsening economic and political morass.

Along with Trudeau, the Latin American countries of Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay signed the referral on the very day that Maduro himself made a surprise arrival at the UN to deliver a scheduled speech not many expected him to show up for.