Image copyright Reuters

Canadian MPs have voted unanimously to revoke the honorary citizenship of Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Passing the motion was a response to her failure to stop the persecution of the Rohingya minority in her country.

Ms Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar - also known as Burma - which was then under military rule.

A UN report last month said Myanmar military leaders must be investigated for genocide against the Rohingyas.

At least 700,000 Rohingya have fled violence in the country in the past 12 months.

Rare honour

The move by MPs in the House of Commons came a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that parliament was reconsidering whether Ms Suu Kyi still deserved the honour of citizenship.

But Mr Trudeau also said the move would not end the plight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people, a Muslim minority which is stateless in majority-Buddhist Myanmar.

In 2007 Canada granted honorary citizenship to Ms Suu Kyi, just one of six people to be so recognised.

Honorary citizenship has been conferred in Canada by a joint resolution of both houses of parliament. Canadian officials told Reuters it must be formally removed the same way.

The next steps are not immediately clear, Liberal MP Andrew Leslie told journalists on Thursday after MPs passed the motion.

"Now the machinery of government will actually chew over the details of what specifically is required to implement," he said.

Earlier this month, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion to recognise the crimes against the Rohingya as an act of genocide.

In 2015, Ms Suu Kyi became Myanmar State Counsellor, the de facto head of the country's civilian administration, following a democratic opening in Myanmar.

Since last year, at least 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar after the army launched a brutal crackdown in response to attacks by a Rohingya militant group.

Ms Suu Kyi has faced international pressure to condemn the army's alleged brutality. However, she has refused to do so.

The military still holds immense power in the country and controls three key ministries - home affairs, border affairs and defence.

The last time Ms Suu Kyi spoke to the BBC in April 2017, she said: "I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening."</s>Canada's House of Commons voted unanimously Thursday to revoke honorary citizenship for Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi following her failure to halt atrocities against the Southeast Asian country's Rohingya minority.

The vote to strip Suu Kyi of the honor bestowed more than a decade ago came days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested it might be reconsidered.

"In 2007, the House of Commons granted Aung San Suu Kyi the status of honorary Canadian citizen. Today, the House unanimously passed a motion to remove this status," Foreign Ministry spokesman Adam Austen said.

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest as she fought for democracy against the country's military junta, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts. However, since becoming Myanmar's state counselor in 2016, her international reputation has taken a severe beating.

Although Suu Kyi's leadership post does not give her control over Myanmar's powerful military, her failure to stop what the United Nations has labeled a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" by army soldiers against minority Rohingya Muslims in the country's western Rakhine state has drawn nearly universal opprobrium.

Thousands of Rohingya have been killed and nearly 700,000 have been forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh since soldiers and pro-government militia first launched retaliatory strikes on civilians in 2016 in response to Rohingya militants who attacked government police stations and army posts.

Austen, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Canada "will continue to support the Rohingyas by providing humanitarian assistance, imposing sanctions against Myanmar's generals and demanding that those responsible be held accountable before a competent international body."

However, as Reuters notes, "The move by the House of Commons lower chamber has no immediate effect because honorary citizenship is conferred by a joint resolution of both the House and the upper Senate chamber and officials say it must be removed the same way."

"I think it's a great symbol," Bloc Québécois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie, who presented the motion, said following the vote.

Ste-Marie said the move presents a "good image at the international level to say, 'No, if you are [an] accomplice of a genocide you won't have the honorary citizenship here," according to The Toronto Star.</s>OTTAWA — MPs have unanimously endorsed a motion to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The vote, on a Bloc Quebecois motion, followed Thursday’s question period and came one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was up to Parliament to decide whether to strip the honour given to Suu Kyi in 2007.

The once-celebrated Burmese reformer has been widely criticized for not speaking out against the atrocities being committed against her country’s Rohingya people. Trudeau’s Liberals had faced pressure to revoke the honour, but had refused to say whether they would consider such a step.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that the government made up its mind to support the idea in response to Suu Kyi’s silence on the crimes in Myanmar.

“Our government supported this motion in response to her continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power,” Adam Austen wrote in an emailed statement.

“We will continue to support the Rohingya people through humanitarian assistance, targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s generals and by pushing for accountability for those responsible through an appropriate international body.”

The Opposition Conservatives called the vote to remove her citizenship a “step in the right direction,” but pressed the Liberals to do more for the Rohingya people “than make a symbolic gesture.”

There is no formal procedure required for making someone an honorary citizen — it is a purely political decision — but precedent has been set for a joint resolution to be passed by the House of Commons and Senate in order to grant someone the honour.

The Bloc MP who put forward the motion to strip Suu Kyi of the honorary citizenship was happy to attract cross-party support, but he was uncertain — as many were — about the exact process the government must now follow.

“What I know (is) it is the House that can give this honorary citizenship and now it has also the power to remove it. That’s what we’ve just done,” Gabriel Ste-Marie, who represents the riding of Joliette north of Montreal, told reporters after the vote.

Suu Kyi is one of six people who have been granted honorary citizenship by the federal government, and the only one who wasn’t presented with the honour at a ceremony in Canada. She received her honorary citizenship during a 2012 visit to Myanmar by then foreign affairs minister John Baird.

Last week, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as genocide and to endorse a United Nations fact-finding mission outlining crimes against humanity by the Myanmar military.

The extensive report documented the systematic targeting of civilian Rohingya by the military, including mass gang rape, sexual slavery and the razing of hundreds of villages.

Ste-Marie said it wouldn’t make sense for MPs to call the crisis a genocide and then not remove Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship.

“If you’re an accomplice (to) a genocide, you won’t have honorary citizenship here. This is a nonsense,” he said.

The extensive report documented the systematic targeting of civilian Rohingya by the military, including mass gang rape, sexual slavery and the razing of hundreds of villages.</s>OTTAWA — MPs have unanimously endorsed motion to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The vote, on a Bloc Quebecois motion, followed Thursday’s question period and came one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was up to Parliament to decide whether to strip the honour given to Suu Kyi in 2007.

The once-celebrated Burmese reformer has been widely criticized for not speaking out against the atrocities being committed against her country’s Rohingya people. Trudeau’s Liberals had faced pressure to revoke the honour, but had refused to say whether they would consider such a step.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that the government made up its mind to support the idea in response to Suu Kyi’s silence on the crimes in Myanmar.

“Our government supported this motion in response to her continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power,” Adam Austen wrote in an emailed statement.

“We will continue to support the Rohingya people through humanitarian assistance, targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s generals and by pushing for accountability for those responsible through an appropriate international body.”

The Opposition Conservatives called the vote to remove her citizenship a “step in the right direction,” but pressed the Liberals to do more for the Rohingya people “than make a symbolic gesture.”

There is no formal procedure required for making someone an honorary citizen — it is a purely political decision — but precedent has been set for a joint resolution to be passed by the House of Commons and Senate in order to grant someone the honour.

Suu Kyi is one of six people who have been granted honorary citizenship by the federal government, and the only one who wasn’t presented with the honour at a ceremony in Canada. She received her honorary citizenship during a 2012 visit to Myanmar by then foreign affairs minister John Baird.

Last week, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as genocide and to endorse a United Nations fact-finding mission outlining crimes against humanity by the Myanmar military.

The extensive report documented the systematic targeting of civilian Rohingya by the military, including mass gang rape, sexual slavery and the razing of hundreds of villages.</s>Canadian legislators, in a symbolic move, voted unanimously Thursday to strip Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary citizenship in response to crimes committed against the Rohingya minority in her country.

The move by the House of Commons has no effect because honorary citizenship is conferred by a joint resolution of both the House and the upper Senate chamber, and officials say it must be removed the same way. Aung San Suu Kyi received her honorary citizenship in 2007.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday that he was open to looking at stripping Suu Kyi of the honor but said doing so would not end the crisis in Myanmar, where more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled a government crackdown.

The House of Commons last week unanimously voted to call the killings of Rohingya a genocide.

A U.S. government investigation last month found Myanmar's military waged a "well-planned and coordinated" campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya.</s>OTTAWA -- Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi made history on Thursday, becoming the first ever person to have MPs unanimously vote to revoke her honorary Canadian citizenship.

In passing the motion from Bloc Quebecois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie, the House of Commons no longer recognizes the title, which has only ever been bestowed upon six people.

Because the Senate also granted her the title, Senators would also have to pass a motion to no longer recognize Suu Kyi as an honorary Canadian citizen. The Senate rose not long after the House voted, and is not scheduled to resume until Tuesday. A Senate official speaking on background said that it would be surprising if no senator moved a similar motion, to make it a full parliamentary revocation.

The Commons’ motion was twofold: to reiterate a motion already unanimously agreed to last week in the House of Commons -- which recognized the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar as genocide and called for further investigation and sanctions -- and subsequently, that the House should revoke the citizenship bestowed upon Suu Kyi in 2007.

Speaking with reporters in the House of Commons foyer moments after his motion passed, the Joliette, Que. MP said he didn't think it was logical for Suu Kyi to still hold the honorary citizenship given the treatment of people in her country, under her watch. He said he thought it was a positive step from Canada to send the signal internationally that "if you're an accomplice of a genocide, you won’t have the honorary citizenship here."

Honorary citizenship does not hold any legal status or rights as a Canadian.

St-Marie said he gave the other parties a heads-up that he would be presenting the motion, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened the door to the possibility of her citizenship being revoked yesterday.

Speaking at the UN, Trudeau said it’s something MPs could debate.

"That's one of the questions that certainly Parliament can reflect on, it was Parliament that granted her honorary citizenship, and that’s a conversation we could certainly have," Trudeau said, though he added that whether or not she has Canadian citizenship, it wouldn't help in solving the crisis.

Trudeau was in the House of Commons when the motion passed.

Canada has publicly condemned the violence and has committed $300 million to help refugees fleeing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the southeast Asian country.

Since August 2017, roughly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Buddhist-majority Rakhine state for refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh amid widespread violence that the United Nations has labelled "textbook ethnic cleansing.”

While the Conservatives voted in support of the motion, foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole and immigration critic Michelle Rempel issued a statement that called on Trudeau to go further than this “symbolic gesture.”

In a statement, Adam Austen, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the government supported the motion because of her “continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power.”

“We will continue to support the Rohingya people through humanitarian assistance, targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s generals and by pushing for accountability for those responsible through an appropriate international body,” Austen said.</s>Ottawa, Sept 28: Not long ago, she was an icon for the democratic world. But not anymore. The parliamentarians of Canada have voted in unison to revoke the honorary citizenship of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi over her alleged failure to halt persecution the Rohingya Muslim minority in her country.

Suu Kyi had once risen as a darling of world's democratic forces and also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts for establishing democracy in the South-east Asian country which had long been under the rule of a military junta. She became the country's first state counsellor in April 2016 after her party - National League for Democracy - sweeping the 2015 elections, the first openly contested one in the country since 1990.

Also Read | Espousing Rohingya cause, terrorists from Bangla and Bengal planned big attack in Bodhgaya

The international world, however, was disappointed over the 73-year-old leader's approach towards the genocide against the Rohingyas. At least 7 lakh Rohingyas have fled Myanmar because of oppression.

The Canadian lawmakers' move came a day after their prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said that the parliament was reconsidering whether the Myanmar leader still deserved the honour that his country gave her.

Also Read | Speed of Rohingyas return is up to Bangladesh says Suu Kyi

Canada extended the honorary citizenship to Suu Kyi, who is just one of six people to have been recognised. The honorary citizenship is conferred by a joint declaration of both the houses of parliament and officials told Reuters that it will revoked in the same manner.</s>OTTAWA — MPs have unanimously endorsed a Bloc Québécois motion to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The vote followed Thursday's question period and came one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was up to Parliament to decide whether to strip the honour given to Suu Kyi in 2007.

Suu Kyi has been widely criticized for not speaking out against the atrocities being committed against her country's Rohingya people.

There is no formal procedure required for making someone an honorary citizen — it is a purely political decision — but precedent has been set for a joint resolution to be passed by the House of Commons and Senate in order to grant someone the honour.</s>MPs have unanimously endorsed a Bloc Quebecois motion to revoke the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The vote followed Thursday’s question period and came one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was up to Parliament to decide whether to strip the honour given to Suu Kyi in 2007.

READ MORE: House of Commons unanimously votes to call Myanmar Rohingya killings a genocide

Suu Kyi has been widely criticized for not speaking out against the atrocities being committed against her country’s Rohingya people.

There is no formal procedure required for making someone an honorary citizen – it is a purely political decision – but precedent has been set for a joint resolution to be passed by the House of Commons and Senate in order to grant someone the honour.

WATCH BELOW: U.N. says Myanmar generals must be tried for genocide against Rohingya Muslims

Last week, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion to recognize the crimes against the Rohingya as genocide and to endorse a UN fact-finding mission outlining crimes against humanity by the Myanmar military.

The extensive report documented the systematic targeting of civilian Rohingya by the military, including mass gang rape, sexual slavery and the razing of hundreds of villages.</s>Canada’s parliament voted unanimously Thursday to pass a motion revoking the honorary Canadian citizenship of Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The motion introduced in the House of Commons by Bloc Quebecois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie reiterated the unanimous support for an earlier motion adopted by the lower chamber of the Canadian parliament to recognize the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar as genocide and to strip Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship in 2007 for her role in fostering democratic change in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

However, her silence and unwillingness or inability to raise her voice to condemn the brutal crackdown by Burmese security forces and Buddhist mobs against the Rohingya Muslim minority resulted in a growing chorus of voices calling on the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to strip her of the honour she shared with the likes of Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, the Aga Khan and Malala Yousafzai.

“Our government supported this motion in response to her continued failure to speak out against the genocide of the Rohingya, a crime being committed by the military with which she shares power,” said in a statement to Radio Canada International Adam Austen, the press secretary of Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

“We will continue to support the Rohingya people through humanitarian assistance, targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s generals and by pushing for accountability for those responsible through an appropriate international body.”

Liberal MP Andrew Leslie, Freeland’s parliamentary secretary, who had introduced the motion last week calling for the recognition of the Rohingya genocide, said the next steps are not immediately clear because there is no precedent for revoking the honorary citizenship that has been granted only on six occasions.

“Keeping in mind this is the will of Parliament, now the machinery of government will actually chew over the details of what specifically is required to implement,” Leslie told CBC News.
MPs of the House of Commons of Canada vote to strip State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship, citing her failure to stop the persecution of the Rohingya people by the Myanmar military.