Genocide

On September 16, 2025, the ​​Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report titled, Legal Analysis of the Conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The report argues that “the actus reus and mens rea of ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part’ under Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention are established.” Such an interpretation is used to frame Israel's conduct as meeting the intentional threshold for the aspect of genocide in international law. NGO Monitor’s Submission to the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict demonstrates:

1. Humanitarian Evacuations Are Not a Sign of Genocidal Intent: “The most fundamental principle of the international laws of war is the need to separate civilian populations from combatants and other military targets. This protects civilians – keeping them away from armed conflict – and can significantly reduce the danger they face and the harm that befalls them. For this reason, Israel urged civilians to evacuate the northern portion of Gaza and move to the south.”
2. Self-Defence: “The IDF has estimated that approximately 11,000 rockets were present in Gaza at the start of Operation.” NGO Monitor further states, “Hamas and Islamic Jihad are believed to possess thousands of rockets in the 40 km range, hundreds more that reach distances of 80 km, in addition to longer ranges of to 160 km.33 Hamas is also in possession of advanced anti-tank missiles such as the Kornet, Concourse, and the RPG-29. These missiles have been used in thousands of attacks on Israeli civilians. Furthermore, NGO Monitor maintains that, “Responding to rocket attacks on the civilian population with military action is also not 'collective punishment,' but rather the exercise of the legal right of self-defense.”
3. Inflated Civilian Casualties: “In manipulating casualty figures, Hamas’ main strategy consists of concealing deaths of its fighters in order to inflate the alleged number of civilian casualties and in order to project an image of ‘victory.’ ’’
4. Death Tolls Are Not Indicative of Genocide: “Though under international law, the number of casualties is not a dispositive factor in determining whether war crimes have been committed.”
5. Hamas’ Use of Human Shields as War Crimes: Hamas deliberately places its military operations in dense civilian populations. “Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandates that “[t]he presence of a protected person [e.g., civilians] may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” Article 51(7) of Additional Protocol I further elaborates that “the presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations.”

Following the 2019 Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, "we accept the findings of the commissioners that it was genocide."

The MMIWG report differed from the 2015 Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which referred to Canada’s historic treatment of Indigenous persons as “cultural genocide” not “genocide” (p.133). Evidence suggests that the claim “genocide” does not apply to Canada’s treatment of Indigenous persons, specifically that: :

1. Cultural Genocide: The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation specifically adopted the term “cultural genocide” and did not use the term “genocide.” Journalist Tristan Hopper’s article, “That Time Canada Rebranded as a ‘Genocide’ State,” notes that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission specifically uses the term “cultural genocide.”. For example, Hopper explains, “Official documents from the time made clear that the point of Residential Schools had been to produce a generation of Indigenous children who were alienated from the languages and traditions of their parents. This mission was neatly summed up in a 1920 quote from Duncan Campbell Scott, the civil servant who’d been placed in charge of the system at its height: ‘Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic.’ His perspectives are further substantiated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which explains that “residential schools were a systematic, government- sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages, and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples,” arguing that these practices amount to “cultural genocide.”
2. Concerns Over Expanding the Definition of Genocide: Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler, responded to Trudeau’s statements, suggesting the MMIWG inquiry’s use of the word was “inappropriate.” CBC interviewed Cotler, where he explains, “Perhaps they had to use a term like genocide in order to sound the alarm, and people will take notice, and finally action will result … But I think we have to guard against using that term in too many ways, because then it will cease to have the singular importance and horror that it warrants.” In the wake of proposed legislation that equates “residential school denialism” with holocaust denial, Cotler’s reservations have materialized.
3. Insufficient Evidence for Genocide Claims: Hopper asserts that the Trudeau government unceremoniously declared a genocide, when the report on MMIWG did not provide evidence of such. The report lacked “any explicit criminological analysis of who was getting murdered, under what circumstances, where, and by whom. An addendum simply informs us that 'there is no reliable estimate of the numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women [and] girls.” In a more recent article, “The Kamloops Graves and the Poisoned Chalice of Reconciliation,” journalist Terry Glavin provides further evidence that raises questions about Trudeau’s genocide assertion, stating, “In the case of the Kamloops horror story, more than 50 officers had been assigned to the Native Indian Residential Schools Task Force, which carried out an eight-year investigation that concluded in 2003. ‘Each of these allegations were thoroughly investigated by both the Task Force and the applicable Sub-Division Major Crime Unit. Not one of these allegations has ever been substantiated, much less proven’”
   
   Mischaracterization of Mass Graves: One of the primary arguments regarding claims that Canada committed genocide was the commonplace claim of the existence of mass graves. Glavin asserts that “No ‘mass grave’ was discovered at the site of the Kamloops Indian residential school five years ago. Even the Tkemlúps te Secwepemc Nation at Kamloops refuted that characterization within a week of the initial round of shocking headlines. Ever since, the Tkemlúps have gone back and forth on the subject, aided by $12.1 million in federal funds, from ‘probable burials’ to graves to ‘signatures that resemble burials.’ Glavin further provides that, “The hundreds of graves ‘found’ at Marieval in Saskatchewan, where Trudeau famously posed kneeling at a gravesite holding a teddy bear, were ordinary burials in a Cowesses community cemetery where gravestones had been removed. Cowessess elder and former Marieval student Lloyd Lerat said this about the graves: ‘We’ve always known these were there.… It’s just the fact that the media picked up on unmarked graves, and the story actually created itself from there because that’s how it happens’.” In addition, in his 2022 investigation ‘The Year of the Graves,’ he documents:

   “In the end, after all the national convulsions sparked by last summer’s sensational headlines about the discoveries of at least 1,300 unmarked graves containing the remains of residential-school children, this is what we’re left with.

   At the Kamloops Indian Residential School, ground penetrating radar identified 200 “probable” but unconfirmed burials of children from the residential school days [the RCMP Task Force appears to adequately clear that up].

   At Cowessess, the graves of 751 Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults and children were enumerated and properly located in an old Catholic cemetery.

   At St. Eugene’s, there is a well-known cemetery, originally set aside for white settlers but a place where Indigenous people are buried as well, that had long ago lost its wooden crosses. The burials of 182 people have now been enumerated and properly located.

   At Shubenacadie, extensive surveys came across the graves of Irish immigrants from a century before the old residential school there first opened its doors. Their graves were found in the area where former students had reported a burial site.

   At Penelakut Island, “160+” possible burials may or may not have been discovered last summer, and some of them might be associated with a long-shuttered residential school.”

4. Contradictory Investigative Findings: Furthermore, Glavin asserts that a vast majority of the examples commonly cited as evidence for the clandestine burials of murdered Indigenous children at residential schools was inferred from hearsay, misreported and otherwise exaggerated. Glavin notes that “In its 2003 report, under the heading Unlawful / Suspicious Deaths, the RCMP Task Force found: ‘These ranged from outright allegations of murder to deaths caused by negligence,’ and even included allegations that babies were being killed and buried on the school grounds. Each of these allegations were thoroughly investigated by both the Task Force and the applicable Sub-Division Major Crime Unit. Not one of these allegations has ever been substantiated, much less proven, and in many cases, investigation has established that the death was due to either disease or some other natural cause: in some cases, the alleged victim was found to be alive several years after his supposed death.”
5. MP Leah Gazan’s Motion: In October 2022, the House of Commons adopted MP Leah Gazan’s motion proclaiming “the government must recognize what happened in Canada’s Indian residential schools as genocide, as acknowledged by Pope Francis and in accordance with article II of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” These untested assertions of genocide rely on skewed statements from the Pope, including the initial reluctance of the Pope to use the term genocide on his trip to Canada. The Canadian Press reports that, “The Pope said he didn’t think to use the word genocide during his trip, calling it a technical term.” Regardless of this discrepancy, the motion passed unanimously, without any consideration of the social, legal or political ramifications of adopting it; there was little debate or parliamentary scrutiny.
6. Expanding Hate Laws Through Genocide Narratives: In an attempt to further the argument that Canada is complicit in genocide, the Senate has attempted to invoke legislation which purports that Indian residential school denialism is akin to Holocaust denialism by amending the Criminal Code section on Holocaust Denial to include “residential schools denialism.” The Assembly of First Nations strongly advocated for these laws to include a standalone crime for residential school denialism. In 2026, Senator Nancy Karetak-Lindell introduced Bill C-9 to the Senate committee, stating the purpose of the amendments is “to address the wilful promotion of residential school denialism within the Criminal Code by classifying it as hate propaganda." On June 3, 2026, the amendments to create the crime of “residential school denialism” and codify it alongside Holocaust denial were defeated by the Senate and Bill C-9 was passed without those provisions.
7. RCMP Data Contradicts MMIWG Findings: The National Inquiry into MMIWG findings argue that the high rate of missing women and girls is evidence of the federal government's genocidal intent. However, RCMP data suggests a great proportion of murdered Indigenous women tended to be victims of “spousal violence” or otherwise tended to be murdered on reserve or by Indigenous men; that the rate of investigation, prosecution and conviction in homicides involving Indigenous women were comparable with cases of homicides generally; and that a significant portion of the “missing” women in RCMP files were in the category of “missing and presumed drowned.”
8. Credibility of the Special Interlocutor's Findings: Glavin's article argues that the “special interlocutor's findings read like a jargon-jumbled syllabus on critical race theory.” Kimberly Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools, relies in her final reports on social theory. She cites Judith Butler, which Glavin reports, is “best known outside the faculty lounges for her 2006 declaration that Hamas and Hezbollah are ‘social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left’.” Murray’s report reads as a subjective thesis on oppression, as opposed to an objective fact-finding report.