Six years after she successfully guided a motion through Canada’s Parliament acknowledging the 1915 Armenian genocide as a “crime against humanity,” former Laval Centre MP for the Bloc Québécois Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral was presented last week with a commemorative plate from the Montreal Armenian community thanking her for her efforts.
Motion unprecedented
In an unprecedented vote held in the House of Commons on April 21, 2004 on a motion that had been brought forward by Dalphond-Guiral, Parliament acknowledged overwhelmingly the Armenian genocide while condemning it as a massive crime. The final tally of MP’s votes was 153-68.
Although it was supposed to be a free vote, unrestricted by party lines, the Liberal government of the time, which was concerned about not upsetting diplomatic relations with the Republic of Turkey, had instructed its cabinet ministers to vote against, and consequently some weren’t even present in the Commons when it was voting time.
95th anniversary
Every year, Dalphond-Guiral joins the Montreal Armenian community when they gather at a genocide memorial erected in Parc Marcellin-Wilson at the corner of Henri-Bourassa and l’Acadie boulevards in Montreal. The Laval riding she once served is also home to thousands of Armenians. This year is the 95th anniversary of the tragedy which was perpetrated by the former Ottoman Empire. To date, 20 countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide. Genocide scholars and historians also generally accept this view.
Dalphond-Guiral remembers some of the negotiations she got involved in back in 2004 in order to assure she’d have a good base of support from MPs from all the parties for her motion. “It was an uphill struggle,” she said in an interview with Mon Laval. “The government at the time which was Liberal was very opposed to recognition by Parliament of this genocide. So we were able to successfully obtain a vote on it only in 2004. Before then it was always refused.”
Motion finally passed
Parliament’s rules for years leading up to Dalphond-Guiral’s motion were such that any time an MP requested the unanimous support of the House so that a vote could be taken on a motion, all it took to stop the process from going forward was for one member to rise and oppose it.
However, in 2004 the rules changed and she knew that a vote on the Armenian genocide was finally going to happen. While acknowledging that politicians from all the parties worked hard to muster support for passing the motion, Dalphond-Guiral maintains that those who worked hardest on it were from the Armenian community.
Turkey unchanged
“The Turkish government absolutely refuses to acknowledge that what happened in 1915 was indeed a genocide,” she said. “They threaten economic sanctions, or they withdraw their ambassador, but, you know, the ambassador is usually back in no time. I can tell you that as the parliamentarian bringing forth the motion, I had incredible pressure put on me by the Turkish diplomats in place then. I know they were just doing their work, but they would have had to get up pretty early in the morning to get me to change my mind.”
The decorative metal plate Dalphond-Guiral was presented by the Armenian community is inscribed with text written by a prominent Armenian-American author, noting the tenacity and resistance of the Armenian people. A card attached to the back of the plate contains a statement from members of Montreal’s Armenian community, expressing gratitude to Dalphond-Guiral for her significant support for the cause of Armenians. She said she was very touched by the gift.