THE YAZIDIS’ PLIGHT
Members of a House of Commons immigration committee were left visibly shaken this month by emotional testimony about horrors committed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant against minority Yazidis in Iraq.
Over three days, MPs heard tearful accounts from victims who managed to flee the atrocities unleashed by ISIL — mass killings, rape, torture, murder, enslavement and forced conversions.
ISIL’s targeting of the Yazidis, a Kurdish minority group that practises an ancient faith, has been declared a genocide by an independent commission mandated by the United Nations, and has been recognized as such by Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion.
Clearly, the plight of the Yazidis would seem to warrant putting those who wish to come here near the front of the line for resettlement in Canada. It was disheartening, then, that the committee was unable to agree to recommend a plan for Canada to respond with the same kind of urgency and generosity extended to Syrian refugees. Instead, MPs allowed proceedings to sink into shameful partisan bickering, with Conservatives and Liberals pointing fingers over failures by successive governments to help the Yazidis.
Granted, refugee sponsorship is a complicated process in the best of circumstances, and more so in this case. Because most Yazidis are displaced within their home country, they don’t fall under formal refugee definitions.
Still, there are steps Canada can take. One would be for Immigration Minister John McCallum to accept Yazidi applications simply on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Not all Yazidis are stuck in Iraq, however. About 25,000 are reported to be living in refugee camps in Turkey. Canada should make every effort to welcome as many as possible, as well as providing humanitarian and medical assistance on site. The plight of the Yazidis also deserves more attention. It is further evidence — as if any more were needed — of ISIL’s vile nature. Would that impressionable youths succumbing to ISIL propaganda about defending their brothers and religion realize that in joining ISIL, they are instead making themselves complicit in heinous abuses. Unfortunately, though, those committing attacks may be too mentally ill or brainwashed to care.
The horrific slitting of a priest’s throat in a church in France Tuesday is the latest evidence that no deed is too low for ISIL to endorse. The Yazidis know this all too well.
A spokesperson for McCallum has noted the committee wrapped up just last week and will need to take some time to review what was heard. That’s understandable, but it’s crucial that Ottawa act as swiftly as possible. The Yazidis are in need of help.