Justin Trudeau calls Russia’s war on Ukraine ‘genocide’

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This article was published 12/04/2022 (990 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Russia’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine should be seen as “genocide,” but NATO and Canada must avoid sending in troops to prevent a broader international war.

Speaking to reporters in Laval, Que. on Wednesday, the prime minister — who last month accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “war crimes” — used his toughest language yet to describe Russia’s military attacks when asked if he agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden, who used the word “genocide.”

Trudeau on Monday in Victoria, when asked directly about the term genocide, only went as far as to call Russia’s actions “absolutely unacceptable and abhorrent.”

However, on Wednesday, Trudeau underlined that Biden had qualified his remarks by saying there are formal investigations and “processes” which must make that determination before adding his view that genocide is an appropriate label.

“But I think it’s absolutely right that more and more people be talking and using the word genocide in terms of what Russia is doing, what Vladimir Putin has done,” said Trudeau.

The prime minister then cited Russian military tactics which he said include “the use of targeted attacks against civilians, against hospitals, against maternity wards, against train stations filled with people fleeing, the deliberate use of sexual violence against the Ukrainian population as a way of creating horrific scenes, the way that they’re attacking Ukrainian identity and culture.

“These are all things that are war crimes that Putin is responsible for,” Trudeau said. “These are all things that are crimes against humanity.”

A day earlier, Biden had implied, then stated outright, that “Yes, I called it genocide.” Speaking as he boarded a flight to return to Washington, the U.S. president told reporters, “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed Biden, tweeting “true words of a true leader.

“Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for U.S. assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.”

But other leaders like France’s President Emmanuel Macron have been reluctant to use the term genocide, which may imply a legal obligation on countries to stop it.

Genocide is a term enshrined in the international Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

It is defined as acts meant “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” and all international parties to the convention have a legal undertaking “to prevent and to punish” it as an international crime.

Trudeau highlighted, as his government has frequently done, that Canada was “one of the first countries to move forward at the International Criminal Court” to ask for an investigation to hold Putin “and his cronies responsible for what’s going on in the illegal invasion of Ukraine.”

Canada has also dispatched a handful of RCMP investigators to aid in collecting evidence and witness testimony “to make sure that the full truth is known and that Putin be held fully to account,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau was asked in French that if he is prepared to say Russia’s reported attacks resemble genocide, what the turning point would be for when NATO and Canada would put troops on the ground.

He initially replied “the turning point” was when Russia decided to “continue its invasion” begun with the 2014 seizure of Crimea and which culminated with the Feb. 24 invasion and attempt to seize Kyiv. But then Trudeau dialed back his rhetoric and said the North Atlantic-European alliance must avoid a broader war.

Trudeau said the moment Putin attacked Ukraine, he attacked the values of the free world. In response, he said, the West has imposed the toughest sanctions “that anyone had ever seen against a major economy” and which he claimed are having a “massive” impact on Putin and his governing elites.

Trudeau insisted allies will maintain sanctions “as long as we need, the coming months, the coming years if necessary” to ensure Putin loses.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday announced further sanctions of its own against 87 Canadian senators, banning them from entry to Russia, just as it did last month with a list of Canadian MPs. The announcement condemned Canada for “trying to be at the forefront of the Russophobic course of the current U.S. administration.”

Wednesday’s list misspelled the first names of two female senators, apparently believing they are Raymond instead of Raymonde. Absent from the latest sanctioned list are senators Percy Downe, Tony Dean and Stephen Greene.

Downe tweeted a “welcome” to his fellow senators, saying he’s been “on this list/barred from Russia since 2017” when he supported the passing of the Magnitsky Act, named after Sergei Magnitsky and which sanctions individuals responsible for human rights abuses.

Trudeau said Canada will continue to provide humanitarian and refugee support along with “direct military support” that Ukrainian soldiers need to defend “their lands, their territory, their values, their culture, their language against these Russian invaders.”

He again portrayed the stakes as enormous “because it’s not just an attack on Ukraine. It’s an attack on the values that underpin our free and democratic societies that underpin the United Nations and the rule of law around the world.”

Trudeau, in French and English, also insisted NATO must avoid a spillover of war beyond Ukraine’s borders or anything that would draw NATO into direct conflict with Russia.

“At the same time, as we make sure that this conflict doesn’t spread around the world, we need to make sure we keep it focused on Ukraine and continue to support Ukraine with everything we have.”

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc