Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is deeply concerned about the violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, but would not say whether Canada will revoke Aung San Suu Kyi's honorary Canadian citizenship amidst mounting international criticism against the de facto leader of the Southeast Asian country.
Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is facing international criticism over her failure to condemn the violence that has forced 164,000 Rohingya to flee from the state of Rakhine to Bangladesh over the past two weeks. They have long complained of persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal migrants.
Ms. Suu Kyi said on Thursday her government was doing its best to protect everyone in the strife-torn state, although she did not refer specifically to the exodus of the minority Rohingya.
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"We have to take care of our citizens, we have to take care of everybody who is in our country, whether or not they are our citizens," she said in comments to Asian News International. "Of course, our resources are not as complete and adequate as we would like them to be but, still, we try our best and we want to make sure that everyone is entitled to the protection of the law."
Mr. Trudeau said on Thursday that he used a one-on-one meeting with Ms. Suu Kyi in June to raise the plight of the Rohingya.
"The situation in Myanmar is extremely preoccupying to us, to Canadians," Mr. Trudeau told reporters at the Liberal caucus meeting in Kelowna, B.C. "When Aung San Suu Kyi was in Ottawa, I expressed our deep concern for the situation the Rohingya were in then. We continue to put pressure on the Myanmar government and all authorities to take concrete action to de-escalate this terrible conflict and to help those who are fleeing."
Under Myanmar's 2008 constitution, which retained significant power for the military, Ms. Suu Kyi does not have the authority to direct security matters. In a statement on Thursday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland recognized that division of power.
"To deny their [Rohingya] rightful place in Myanmar only weakens the democratic vision Aung San Suu Kyi has fought so hard for throughout her life," Ms. Freeland said. "The Government of Canada urges the authorities in Myanmar to work together and take measures to protect all civilians from ongoing violence."
The current outbreak of violence began last month, after Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base in Rakhine. Myanmar's military responded by killing at least 400 people, triggering a massive exodus of Rohingya villagers. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that there is a risk of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
In a statement this week, Ms. Suu Kyi blamed "terrorists" for a "huge iceberg of misinformation" about the conflict in Rakhine. However, journalists on a government-controlled trip to Rakhine on Thursday saw new fires burning in a village that had been abandoned by the Rohingya, casting doubt on the government's claims that the persecuted minority have been destroying their own homes.
Mr. Trudeau has come under pressure to rescind Ms. Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship, which was bestowed upon her by the former Conservative government for her "long struggle for freedom and democracy in her country."
An online petition calling on the government to revoke her honorary citizenship has garnered more than 7,000 signatures as of Thursday evening. Fareed Khan, a government relations and communications consultant in Gatineau, launched the petition on Monday after years of following the plight of the Rohingya people.
"The Canadian government needs to take action in particular because we have a very direct connection to Myanmar because we gave an honorary Canadian citizenship to Aung San Suu Kyi," Mr. Khan said.
The tiny Rohingya community in Canada doesn't think Ms. Suu Kyi deserves the honour either.
"If she cannot create peace and harmony within the community, how does she deserve this Canadian honorary citizenship?" said Nur Hasim, president of the Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organization.
Mr. Hasim, a Rohingya from Rakhine who came to Canada as a refugee in 2007, said Ms. Suu Kyi is at fault because she has not done anything to stop the military from attacking his people.
"She is working as a shield. She's supporting the military killing the Rohingya people," he said.
Mr. Hasim fled Myanmar alone as a teenager in 1991 after the military captured him; he managed to escape from what he says would have been a life of forced labour. He spent 16 years in a UN refugee camp in Bangladesh, where he worked as a teacher, before being selected as one of a few Rohingya for refugee resettlement in Canada. He now lives in Kitchener, Ont., with his wife and six children. He estimates there are only 350 Rohingya in Canada.
Garnett Genuis, the Conservative deputy critic for foreign affairs, said Mr. Trudeau has reacted too slowly to the Rohingya crisis.
"The first step is for the Prime Minister to pick up the phone and have this conversation in an ongoing way with her [Ms. Suu Kyi] and to really clearly express the Canadian perspective," Mr. Genuis said.
Neither the Conservatives nor the NDP called on the government to revoke Ms. Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship. NDP foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière said Canada must pressure Ms. Suu Kyi's government to allow unfettered access for independent monitors and humanitarian workers.
It's not clear how Canada would go about revoking honorary citizenship if it wished to do so. The government did not respond to The Globe and Mail's query about this.
Some critics, including former Liberal ministers Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock, have also called for Ms. Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize to be revoked. Fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate and honorary Canadian citizen Malala Yousafzai has also criticized Ms. Suu Kyi for her silence on the treatment of the Rohingya.
With a report from Reuters