OTTAWA, May 15 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week parliament voted to send bill C-19, the bill which would “implement in Canada the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)”, to committee. Presentations in favour of the bill are being heard today by the Foreign Affairs Committee. All parties voted in favour of the bill’s being sent to committee except the Canadian Alliance which opposes the measure.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy spoke on the bill (called the “Crimes Against Humanity Act”), in the House of Commons noting that the ICC will be established in the Hague once 60 states have ratified the Statute. Canada will be the “first country to have developed comprehensive implementing legislation,” he boasted. So far, eight countries have ratified the treaty.
Sensing the unease of Canadians with this legislation, the Minister tried to persuade his hearers that “the ICC is not a threat to Canadian sovereignty.” However, his suggestion is contradicted by his statement two sentences later where he notes that the court “will have jurisdiction only where national judicial systems are unwilling or unable to investigate these crimes.” When unwilling to prosecute a person for a supposed crime, the country would be forced to “surrender them to the ICC.” Moreover, the absolute supremacy of the ICC over Canadian law is revealed in the explanatory material on the bill released by the government: “It would not be a defence that an offence was committed in obedience to the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission.”
At the ICC negotiations the Canadian delegation has been the most radical in attempting to insert into the documents crimes associated with “sexual orientation” and “forced pregnancy”.
For the background on this story see:
Liberals to Impose International Criminal Court in Bill C-19
URGENT ACTION ITEM – Immediately contact your MPs and the following committee members to ask them to oppose bill C-19.
Committee members include:
Colleen Beaumier
[email protected]
Jean Augustine
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Eleni Bakopanos
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Eugène Bellemare
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Aileen Carroll
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Maud Debien
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Keith Martin
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Svend Robinson
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Diane St-Jacques
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