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Furthermore, the principle that politicians mustn’t weigh in on genocide seemed not to trouble Trudeau as recently as April, when he noted the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. “We mark the 101st commemoration of the tragic loss of life … during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire in 1915,” his office wrote in a statement to the Armenian National Committee of Canada. “Both the Senate of Canada and the House of Commons have adopted resolutions referring to these events as genocide.”

Bodies that have not recognized the Armenian genocide as such include … the United Nations. But a UN report released Thursday calling ISIL’s attacks on the Yezidis genocide was good enough for the Liberals finally to concede the point with respect to that group. The Conservatives, naturally, then immediately began demanding they concede the point with respect to the other groups.

Kerry and his country have skin in the game. It actually matters what the United States calls it, given that it’s leading the military effort against ISIL. It does not matter what Canada calls it, because we haven’t been doing much about it — or indeed, about the slaughter of many times more Syrians by President Bashar Assad — and there is no sign of that changing.

I’m neither strongly opposed, nor strongly in favour, of an aggressive intervention. I don’t trust the people who plan these forays not to leave the place worse off, but I don’t think I could argue against a concerted Canadian attempt, however belated, to put an end to the bloodshed. Absent any such attempt attempt, however, it is utterly mortifying to watch Canadian politicians asserting moral superiority based on their vocabulary.