Aung San Suu Kyi no longer an honorary Canadian citizen

Rachel Aiello Ottawa News Bureau Online Producer

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OTTAWA – In the eyes of Canada’s Parliament, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s is no longer an honorary Canadian citizen.

The Senate passed a motion on Tuesday to make official and complete what MPs voted to do last week: revoke her honorary Canadian citizenship, over the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

The motion from Independent Sen. Ratna Omidvar called on the Senate to join the House of Commons in calling to revoke her honorary citizenship, recognizing the treatment of Rohingya Muslims by the military in Myanmar as genocide.

Despite international pressure, Suu Kyi has repeatedly failed to condemn atrocities committed by the military against the Rohingya Muslim population. At least 10,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed -- a conservative estimate, according to the United Nations -- while more than 700,000 have been forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The UN has called the situation “textbook ethnic cleansing.” Suu Kyi has said only that it “could have been handled better.”

Last week, MPs agreed unanimously to strip Suu Kyi of the title. She made history, becoming the first ever person to have their honorary Canadian citizenship revoked.

Suu Kyi was honoured by Canada in 2012 for her decades-long fight for democracy in Myanmar. She took the nation’s highest office in 2016, although much of the country’s power has remained with the military.

Both the House of Commons and Senate bestowed honorary citizenship upon Suu Kyi in 2007, and so both chambers of Parliament had to revoke the title for it to be officially considered complete.

“It is my hope that revoking Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship to this country will allow us to take further steps to address the Rohingya refugee crisis,” Sen. Omidvar tweeted shortly after the Senate adopted her motion.

“It is my hope that revoking Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship to this country will allow us to take further steps to address the Rohingya refugee crisis,” Sen. Omidvar tweeted shortly after the Senate adopted her motion.

Speaking in the Senate foyer after the motion passed unanimously, Sen. Omidvar said that while it is a symbolic move, it’s not the end of the road.

Only six people have ever been granted honorary citizenship by Canada. That list is now down to five names: Raoul Wallenberg; Nelson Mandela; Tenzin Gyataso, the 14th Dalai Lama; Karim Aga Khan, the Imam of Shia Ismaili Muslims; and Malala Yousafzai.

Sen. Omidvar said that having Suu Kyi maintain the title would be “a slight on the privilege of Canadians and in particular, because honorary citizenship is given so seldom and it’s given only to people who we want to signal, and single out, as leaders in a global world.”

The motion has passed. Thank you to my @SenateCA colleagues. It is my hope that revoking Suu Kyi’s honourary citizenship to this country will allow us to take further steps to address the #Rohingya refugee crisis #cdnpoli #SenCA #Myanmar https://t.co/ZWlz9P74sJ

— Sen. Ratna Omidvar (@ratnaomi) October 2, 2018

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