Global Magnitsky Bill Introduced in the Canadian Parliament

June 15, 2015

12 June 2015 – Irwin Cotler, Cana­di­an MP, for­mer Min­is­ter of Jus­tice and Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Cana­da, and chair of the Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Group, has intro­duced the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill to the Cana­di­an par­lia­ment. The bill, enti­tled the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act [C‑689], calls for sanc­tions on inter­na­tion­al human rights vio­la­tors any­where in the world, and is sim­i­lar to the U.S. Glob­al Mag­nit­sky bill cur­rent­ly mak­ing its way through the U.S. Congress.

Explain­ing his new bill, Irwin Cotler MP said:
“The vic­tims of human-rights vio­la­tions in Rus­sia and around the world… and the coura­geous activists who stand up to rights-vio­lat­ing regimes at great per­son­al risk – were on my mind when I rose on Tues­day in the House to present my leg­is­la­tion… Coun­tries that val­ue human rights and the rule of law must use the mea­sures at our dis­pos­al to hold vio­la­tors to account and dis­cour­age future vio­la­tions. Oth­er­wise, we are exposed as hav­ing far less con­cern for these noble prin­ci­ples than our usu­al rhetoric.”

Intro­duc­ing the leg­is­la­tion, Irwin Cotler MP paid an emo­tion­al trib­ute to his friend and advo­cate of Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion, Boris Nemtsov, who was assas­si­nat­ed near the Krem­lin in Moscow three months ago. 

“I could almost feel the pres­ence of my late friend Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the demo­c­ra­t­ic Russ­ian oppo­si­tion who was mur­dered near the Krem­lin ear­li­er this year,” said Irwin Cotler.

Boris Nemtsov pub­licly sup­port­ed Irwin Cotler in 2012 when the Mag­nit­sky leg­is­la­tion was first intro­duced in the Cana­di­an parliament.
“Mag­nit­sky was killed by pros­e­cu­tors and prison management…Putin gov­ern­ment sup­port­ed the mur­der­ers… The idea of the [Mag­nit­sky] Act is to imple­ment sanc­tions against absolute­ly con­crete cor­rupt offi­cials and peo­ple who are respon­si­ble for killing Mag­nit­sky,” said Boris Nemtsov.

“As a coun­try with the low lev­el of cor­rup­tion and rule of law, Cana­da has to fight against crim­i­nals and against cor­rup­tion. You are not against Rus­sia, you are against cor­rup­tion, against crim­i­nals. It will be very painful for Russ­ian cor­rupt bureau­cra­cy to get such kind of law from Cana­da. Very painful. Because cor­rupt sys­tem in Rus­sia means that they have prop­er­ty out­side of the coun­try, they relax out­side the coun­try, they send their kids to get edu­ca­tion outside…”

(Lis­ten to the full speech by Boris Nemtsov in Cana­da in 2012, start­ing after intro­duc­tion at 4 min.: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/03/02/when-nemtsov-came-to-ottawa/)

In March this year, the Cana­di­an House of Com­mons unan­i­mous­ly sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive to intro­duce Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions on indi­vid­ual human-rights vio­la­tors, includ­ing those involved in the 2009 deten­tion, tor­ture and mur­der of Sergei Mag­nit­sky. A sim­i­lar motion was adopt­ed in the Cana­di­an Sen­ate a few weeks lat­er. Yet, the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment has not act­ed on the call from parliamentarians.

“There is still time for the [Cana­di­an] gov­ern­ment to either take over my bill or to intro­duce sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion of its own, out of respect for the unan­i­mous will of Cana­di­an MPs, and out of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the vic­tims of human-rights vio­la­tions and those who strug­gle valiant­ly on their behalf, in Rus­sia and around the world,” said Irwin Cotler, MP. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:
Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Campaign
+44 2074401777
e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
web­site: www.lawandorderinrussia.org
Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

Video of Irwin Cotler MP intro­duc­ing the Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill in the Cana­di­an Parliament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwMo43eU1BE&feature=youtu.be

New Cana­di­an Glob­al Mag­nit­sky Bill, C‑689: “An Act to enact the Glob­al Human Rights Account­abil­i­ty Act and to make relat­ed amend­ments to the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Mea­sures Act and the Immi­gra­tion and Refugee Pro­tec­tion Act”
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=8035881

Orig­i­nal 2012 Cana­di­an Mag­nit­sky Bill, C‑339: “An Act to con­demn cor­rup­tion and impuni­ty in Rus­sia in the case and death of Sergei Magnitsky”
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=6253662&Language=E&Mode=1

The Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Group website:
http://ipg-magnitsky.org/

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