The Canadian Committee to Combat Crimes Against Humanity (CCCCH) was created January 5th, 2000 by a group of people concerned by the growing number of what they consider to be crimes against humanity in Canada. The Canadian Committee to Combat Crimes Against Humanity is a non-profit organisation, officially incorporated as recognised by the federal patent letter of January 24th, 2000, and as stated in the Bulletin of Canadian Societies and the Gazette of Canada. The CCCCH is an autonomous organisation not affiliated with any political party. It is open to all without prejudice. Its financing is assured by its members and only by its members, and it is not subsidised by any official power or authority.
It may seem strange to speak of crimescrimes against humanity in Canada, especially since our conception of such crimes has been largely formulated by the images of the Nuremburg War-Crimes Trials in 1945 and the horrors of the Holocaust. The dis- covery of common graves in Chile, harsh reminders of the Pinochet dictatorship, brings us face to face with the reality of genocide. In the final decades of the twentieth century, the genocide in Rwanda, the earlier atrocities of the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia where millions of people were made victims of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, as well as the atrocities and missing persons, courtesy of the military dictator- ship in Argentina and denounced ceaselessly by the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo," have left us reeling. Our conception of "crimes against humanity" has remained within this scope of physical violence exercised against groups of people by regimes and individuals.
However, as a result of the establishment of the "Erdemovic" jurisprudence (http://www.un.org/icty/jurf22.htm), the idea of crimes against humanity may possibly be enlarged so as to transcend the present exclusive definition of physical assault against masses of people. In effect, the judges in the aforementioned case estimate that "crimes against humanity cover grave acts of violence injurious to the human being by way of attacking that which is essential to him or her: life, liberty, physical safety, health, dignity . . . But crimes against humanity also transcend the individual human since in attacking the individual, Humanity itself is targeted and negated. It is indeed the identity of the victim - Humanity - which marks the specific nature of crimes against humanity."
Seen from this angle, the notion of crimes against humanity becomes much less distant from our own everyday reality. It is no longer exclusively a question of uncovering a mass grave in order to point a finger at those guilty of crimes against humanity. International jurisprudence turns the needle in the direction of the essence of such crime, and today physical violence practised against groups of people is not the sole criterion upon which to prosecute the guilty. A crime against humanity becomes at once that act which attacks the essence of one's humanity - one's human dignity.
Let us ask ourselves the following question: "Is there not an assault upon the dignity of Canadians when an organisation like "Canadian Feed the Children" estimates that approximately 100,000 (one hundred thousand) Canadian children go to school every day having had nothing to eat?" In Quebec, more than half a million Quebecers are forced to survive on less than $500 (five hundred dollars) per month in aid as a last resort, having been, in effect, segregated economically by an officially-sanctioned policy of apartheid. Moreover, this attack on human dignity has a name: Gino Laplante, a homeless man with psychiatric problems, "de-institutionalised" by the Quebec government, froze to death recently in Montreal in minus 51 degrees Celsius weather in full view of passers-by, one of whom stopped to assist him, too late, unfortunately. Who is responsible for such situations and the plight of thousands of victimised people?
If you consider that it is parents who are solely responsible for the welfare of their children, that is indeed your prerogative; if you believe that Gino Laplante had sufficient resources at his disposal, that, too, is your right. If you say that those who are obliged to survive with less than $500 a month have only to find a job (though such jobs are statistically proven to be non-existent), that is also your prerogative. It is your right to believe whatever you wish. Moreover, this right is guaranteed both by the Canadian and Quebec Charters of Rights.
The CCCCH is of the opinion that those responsible for such situations in which specific groups of fellow citizens are victimised are those in our society having decision- making authority, those who, in the name of two balanced columns of numbers, and for purely political reasons, have cut social programs to the bone when other solutions were clearly possible.
The Criminal Code of Canada states that torture and persecution constitute crimes against humanity. To callously submit children to the torture of hunger as part of an exercise in economic ideology is a crime against humanity, and those responsible for this crime must be judged as criminals. To submit a human being to the slow torture of freezing to death in order to lessen debts induced by the banking system in the first place is a crime against humanity, and those in positions of authority whose decisions are responsible for such a state of affairs must be viewed as criminals.
The Canadian Committee to Combat Crimes Against Humanity has been mandated to put into place any mechanism judged appropriate in order to identify and bring before national and/or international courts those individuals whose acts and decisions constitute a crime against humanity such as defined by International Law and the Criminal Code of Canada.
Whether you are in Canada or elsewhere in the world, you may have been the victim of such crimes, or you may know those who have been so victimised. The systematic persecution of specific groups within our society by those in positions of public power, who wish only to conform to the dictates of international finance under the pretext of "globalisation," is a crime. If you have been asking yourself what can be done, then remain silent no longer; sign the CCCCH petition.
The CCCCH has also been mandated to further information concerning the negative effects of neo-liberal politics and the effects of corporate globalisation on local populations, and to define and characterise the existing relation between this particular politico-economic system and crimes against humanity.
Here in Canada where the judicial system is inextricably bound to the principle of jurisprudence, we can create cases of jurisprudence which then can be applied here as well as elsewhere in the world. To succeed, two major obstacles must be breached- both large but not insurmountable - one of a political nature, the other of a financial nature.
The first obstacle, as stated above, is at the political level. The Criminal Code of Canada states that only the Attorney General can authorise prosecution in the case of an accusation of crimes against humanity. The Attorney General of Canada, as an elected member of the national government, is responsible to the country which he serves as public servant. However, he is also a member of the governing party which holds power, hence a member of the governing political class. It is hardly likely that those of the political class as a whole will not defend, as an automatism, others of the same political class even though the latter be viewed as deserving of prosecution under what would now be more broadly-based charge of crimes against humanity. In order to break this politically-motivated opposition, what is needed is a popular clamour of large proportion.
Therefore we ask of you this: do not remain silent; sign the CCCCH petition!
The second obstacle is funding. To gather the necessary proofs including the statements of those victimised, to update an information system, to eventually hire a lawyer or lawyers to attempt a prosecution based on the appropriate proofs, all of this requires money. If for whatever reason you cannot be in the line of fire, then help give those who can the means by which to engage the battle. It must be remembered that those who victimise the poor and disenfranchised are powerful, will be forced to defend themselves, and have the means to do so. Help give the CCCCH the means to force the issue all the way to The Hague if necessary. Whatever your contribution to the cause, your financial aid at any level is precious and the CCCCH's sole means of financing its challenge to the political class.
We invite you to read the articles on this site to which we will add your comments and your own contributions ( as well-documented as possible, please, in the case of formal analyses).
Articles � The International Monetary Fund, Corporate Welfare, and the Destruction of National Economies," by Bruce Katz. "The Universe of Impunity," by Ren� Silva. "Let's Take Out Our Calculators," by Ren� Silva. "Public Enemy Number One," by Ren� Silva. What You Can Do! First, begin by signing the petition. Then, bring forth relevant information you possess in the form of commentaries and/or submit articles (annotated and recognizing sources). If you can, send a financial contribution which is within your means. In the name of those who are not now able to defend their rights, and those no longer here to defend those rights, we thank you.Go Top