OTTAWA, June 16 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Tuesday, the House of Commons passed Bill C-19, which would institute the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court in Canada. The bill was passed 224-36, strictly along party lines, with all parties in favour except the Canadian Alliance. (See link to voting below) The legislation was sneaked through as the House was preparing to go into recess, thus giving little opportunity for careful consideration of this matter of monumental significance.
Numerous problems with the legislation were pointed out during the final debate by Gurmant Grewal, the Alliance’s chief foreign affairs critic. Grewal noted that not only does the legislation give up Canadian sovereignty, it does so without the final rules and regulations of the ICC being defined. “This is a travesty of democracy. Bill C-19 requires Canadians to support something that is still under negotiation by the international community,” said Grewal.
Grewal said that a Canadian Alliance government would repeal the bill. He noted that the Liberal government rejected an amendment to the bill that would have prevented the handing over of Canadian sovereignty. The government rejected the addition of the following lines: “notwithstanding anything (in) this act, Canada’s national sovereignty is to be protected” and “international law is not to be permitted to supersede Canadian law”.
One warning of critics, that the International Criminal Court creates a one world government mechanism, is borne out by the fact that law is the function of government and the ICC will supercede all national laws and decisions of democratically elected legislatures. In fact, the absolute supremacy of the ICC over Canadian law is indicated in the explanatory material on the bill released by the Canadian 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.” This position is compounded by the fact that once the ICC is in place (when 60 countries ratify it) it will have universal jurisdiction in the eyes of its adherents, even over those countries which object to it.
As of June 12, the Rome statute had 96 signatures with twelve countries having already ratified the agreement. The full 60 ratifications are expected by December this year. Recent ratifications include that of France on June 9 and Venezuela on June 7. Extreme feminist groups and their usual allies strongly favour the ICC as a tool for enforcing their anti-family social ideology on all nations.
Bill C-19 must still receive final approval in the Canadian Senate.
See the final debate on C-19.
See the way the MPs voted on C-19.
See LifeSite’s critique of Bill C-19 at:
Liberals to Impose International Criminal Court In Bill C-19
International Criminal Court Prepcom Commences