Colleagues, we have all recently been galvanized by the use of chemical weapons, most likely by the Assad regime, which is completely unacceptable.

What should be at least equally unacceptable is the death of over 100,000 people by conventional weapons.

Dead is dead and 99 deaths by bullets are no less a crime than one death by sarin gas, acknowledging that the latter is a clear violation of international law.

The logical aim of a Syrian-led transition to a free and pluralistic state abiding by democratic principles seems even further off as we deal with the aftermath of recent events, but maybe, in a most perverse way, those events will finally be the catalyst for the rest of the world to take meaningful action.

We applaud recent cooperation between Russia and the United States to forestall military intervention, which would lead only to the condemnation of the intervener, no matter how good their intentions.

Given their influence and historic support of Bashir al Assad, Russia must be instrumental in accelerating the disarmament process, and be a part of a lasting solution, as must other countries who have specific influence in that area, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Iran, if we are to believe their new leader’s recent words.

The collateral damage to all such conflicts is, of course, the displacement of millions of people into drastic living conditions.a

We must also do our parts to look after those who are now homeless through no fault of their own.

For our part, Canada has committed $362 million to humanitarian, development and security assistance; as well as re-settling refugees.

We have to do more than talk and we have to find a way to send an enforceable message to Assad and other criminals involved in this atrocity.

There are no good guys in the armed conflict in Syria.

Canada does not recognize any of the various opposition forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and we remain very concerned about the involvement of radical jihadists among the opposition.
We do not believe that these groups have any interest in assuring the rights of Syria’s minority communities; nor do we believe that they are ready to abandon extremism.

Somewhere down the road, it is not beyond reason to expect that those responsible for crimes against the people of Syria should be held accountable in a legal forum such as the International Criminal Court.

But, for now, the priorities must be to stop the fighting with an enforceable ceasefire, disarmament to the maximum extent possible and relief for the millions of suffering refugees and the neighbouring states who are doing their best to cope with them.

Canada`s interest in this situation stems from our deeply-rooted values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law; and the fact that Canada has a sizable Syrian diaspora, just as we have diasporas from every country represented here and about three times as many outside these walls.

Ultimately, the Syrian people must be given the opportunity to decide their own future.

We can’t do that for them, but we can help create the circumstances where they can do it for themselves.

Thank you.