Trudeau says he is open to reconsidering Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has raised the prospect of Parliament reconsidering whether Myanmar’s embattled de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still deserving of her honorary Canadian citizenship.
Mr. Trudeau made the comments at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday amid growing pressure to revoke Ms. Suu Kyi’s honorary status over her failure to protect the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar. The House of Commons recently declared the Rohingya crisis, which has
forced about 725,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh over the past year, a genocide.
“It was Parliament that granted her honorary citizenship and that’s a conversation that we could certainly have,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters during a news conference at the UN in New York.
“But let’s be very clear … whether Aung San Suu Kyi has Canadian citizenship or not, honorary or not, makes no difference in solving this crisis.” In a scathing report earlier this month, a UN fact-finding mission faulted Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, for failing to use her position, or her “moral authority,” to stem the Myanmar military’s violence against the Rohingya. The report also called on the international community to investigate and prosecute Myanmar’s top military officials for “genocidal intent.” Ms. Suu Kyi does not have any control over the military under the country’s constitution.
Several former Liberal cabinet ministers, including renowned international human-rights lawyer Irwin Cotler, last month called on the federal government to strip Ms. Suu Kyi of the her honorary citizenship following the UN report. Meanwhile, a petition urging Mr. Trudeau to revoke Ms. Suu Kyi’s honour has reached nearly 56,000 signatures.
