Writing Wrongs: Exploring Human Rights and Genocide in Canada

Gender 305 Gender and International Human Rights

Often language employed within universal laws are inaccessible to the public and can only be understood by those retaining a high level of selective education, which is often privatized. Hence, the ability to comprehend human rights treaties becomes limited, rights become
unrecognized to the general public, and the knowledge of individual rights remains undisclosed. Subsequently, wrongdoings committed by the state can easily be exonerated, due to the transgressions remaining shrouded.

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UN, 1948) is a central document in international human rights that provides the language to define genocide globally – or at least within its signatory countries. In 1952, Canada
ratified the convention and has since integrated its own definition of genocide within its criminal code (UN Treaty, n.d.). The definition found in the Canadian criminal code is notably influenced by the one offered by the UN (1948) but is surprisingly excluding important aspects –
points (b), (d), and (e) – of the latter cited below:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (p.1)

In this podcast, we explore how language inclusions and exclusions within legal documentation influences how a country addresses internal issues. More specifically, how has the omission of these three definitions of genocide influenced Canada, its judicial system, and its cultural and national’s reaction to incidents of violence within the country? We believe language and culture are tightly intertwined. Therefore, it is interesting to consider how this linguistic exclusion relates to Canada’s image on the international stage as a peacekeeping nation with a cultural ‘mosaic’, a nation that promotes and accepts multiculturalism (Dorn, 2005; Viau, 2018). In our discussion, we address the impact of this decision on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, including the coercive sterilization of Indigenous women and the Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Was this omission a way for Canada to abdicate itself from legal guilt? Additionally, could this linguistic exclusion have an impact on the State’s reaction or inaction to other violent acts such as the implementation of pipelines, national access to abortion clinics, and the ‘Millennial Scoop’?

References for audience
A legal analysis of genocide: Supplementary report of the National Inquiry into Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Retrieved from
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.
pdf
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Lexicon of
terminology.
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MMIWG_Lexicon_FINAL_ENFR.pdf
References
A legal analysis of genocide: Supplementary report of the National Inquiry into Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Retrieved from
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Supplementary-Report_Genocide.
pdf
Criminal code, RSC 1985, c. C - 46, § 318(2), (1985). Ottawa, ON. Retrieved from
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-318.html
Dorn, A. W. (2005). Canadian peacekeeping: Proud tradition, strong future? Canadian Foreign
Policy Journal, 12(2), 7-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2005.9673396
Government of Canada. (n.d.). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Retrieved from
https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525
MacKinnon, C. A. (2007). Are women human? And other international dialogues. Harvard
University Press.
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Lexicon of
terminology.
https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MMIWG_Lexicon_FINAL_ENFR.pdf
Snyder, E., Napoleon, V., & J. Borrows. (2015). Gender and violence: Drawing on indigenous legal
resources. U.B.C. Law Review, 48(2), 593-654.
United Nations (UN). (n.d.) Treaty collection: Status of treaties. Retrieved from
https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=IV-1&chapter=4&clang=_e
n
United Nations (UN). (1948). Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of
genocide. Treaty Series, 78, 1-4.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20
on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.p
df
United Nations (UN). (2007). United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Retrieved from
https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018
/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
The World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. (1993, June 25). Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action. Retrieved on October 10, 2022 from
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/vienna-declaration-and-progr
amme-action
Viau, Y. (2018). Multiculturalism: Mosaic or melting pot.
https://accultura.com/en/multiculturalism-mosaic-or-melting-pot/