Stop genocide in Gaza–open letter to Canadian Members of Parliament (2023-11-20)

To Members of the Parliament of Canada

STOP GENOCIDE – Gaza death toll as of 6/11/23 – 10,022 including 4,104 children

The known number of people killed in Gaza from Israeli bombing as of 6 November
2023, (as reported by the Gaza health authority) is at least 10,022 people including at least
4,104 children.

As a Member of Parliament and as an individual, you have a duty to take effective
action to oppose and stop the genocide of people in Gaza, prevent further genocide and
ensure accountability for perpetrators and remediation for victims. The duty to take action
to prevent and remedy genocide belongs to all people everywhere.

The facts and the law compel you to use your voice as a member of the Parliament of
Canada to unequivocally oppose the genocide–in Parliament, in public, in your community and internationally. You must take effective action to ensure that Canada immediately:

Calls for a ceasefire;

Calls on Israel to:
i. restore food, fuel, water, energy supplies to Gaza;
ii. allow safe passage to the medical staff, equipment and other supplies needed
to care for the injured, dying and dead in Gaza;
iii. allow such additional supplies, food, water, equipment and personnel as are
needed to sustain life and provide assistance to the displaced and injured;

Ends the sale and shipment of arms to Israel. N.B. In 2022 Canada exported over
$21,000,000 million of military goods to Israel which included over $3,000,000 in
explosives, likely used to kill civilians in Gaza

Takes all steps domestically and internationally, to ensure the investigation, prosecution,
trial and punishment of those responsible for authorizing directing and executing the post
7 October military attacks in Gaza;

Apply to the International Court of Justice for such orders as necessary to prevent further
acts by Israel that are prohibited by the Genocide Convention Article II.

Genocide is prohibited under any circumstances under many laws binding on
Canada including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Geneva Conventions
and Criminal Code of Canada. There is no defense to genocide or genocidal acts.

Both international and Canadian law require all governments of Canada and all its
provinces and territories to take effective measures to prevent and punish genocide
wherever, by whoever and against whomever. Genocide is committed by any acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or
religious group, by (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or
mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Israel is committing all these acts with intention in Gaza. .

Please take action now on behalf of the law, Canadians, Palestinians, people
forcibly trapped in Gaza and on behalf of hope for peace. Without law there will be
no peace.

Thank you. I await you response.
Gail Davidson, a concerned Canadian