The House of Commons of Canadian parliament unanimously adopted the motion to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship granted to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the one-time champion of democracy who is now seen as a disgraced bystander in the ethnic cleansing of her country’s Rohingya population.

The historic motion was unexpected but foreseeable, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week that the honour Parliament had bestowed upon Suu Kyi could be reconsidered.

Bloc Québécois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie said that opening prompted him Thursday to ask a question to test the government’s resolve and then to rise immediately after question period to ask the Speaker to canvas if there was unanimous consent to immediately revoke the honour, which was granted in 2007.

In 2016, Suu Kyi became state counsellor, the country’s minister of foreign affairs. She is widely viewed as having failed to use her moral power and democratic mandate to rein in the actions of the country’s military, which has attacked ethnic Rohingya in villages near the country’s border with Bangladesh.

Ste-Marie said his motion gave voice to his constituents’ feeling that it was not “logical” for Suu Kyi to retain Canadian citizenship in light of what the United Nations is calling an unfolding genocide in her country.

A UN report called this week for the prosecution of the generals responsible for crimes under international law, including murder, rape, torture, sexual slavery, persecution and enslavement.

Source: Toronto Star