Ottawa hasn’t yet made any official statement regarding the new ISIS video that purportedly shows the execution by firing squad of 200 Syrian children who were forced to lie in a row on the ground prior to the shooting.
According to the Daily Mail, the horrific footage was filmed in late August 2014 and the victims were captured after ISIS took over Tabqa airbase in Syria.
The reaction of the Canadian government to the death of the Canadian national, John Robert Gallagher, in an ISIS suicide bombing attack in northern Syria, failed to mention ISIS, its terrorist – genocidal nature and the circumstances in which Gallagher was killed. Gallagher was a former member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, who joined the ranks of Canada-supported Kurdish militias that fight ISIS.
A Foreign affairs spokesman only warned in a statement to CBC News about the dangers of joining any of the fighting groups in Syria. “Canadians travelling to Syria, including those who travel there to join local campaigns to fight alongside any party to the conflict, must do so at their own personal risk.” He did not differentiate between ISIS and other groups, like the Kurds and Yezidis, that defend themselves from a genocide by ISIS.
On October 31, Justin Trudeau, then the Prime Minister-designate, issued an official statement on the crash of a Russian passenger plane in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. “I was shocked and saddened to learn today that a Russian passenger plane crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all on board,” said Trudeau. “While we do not yet know the cause of this terrible crash, I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of all those who lost their lives in today’s tragedy.”
No further comment has been made by Trudeau or other Canadian officials on this issue, even after the initial investigation found that most probably it was an act of terrorism committed by ISIS or ISIS affiliates.
A week earlier (October 24), a Canadian – Israeli Rabbi Howard Rothman (Hebrew name Chaim Yechiel Rotman), died from his injuries sustained during the November 18, 2014 Palestinian terrorist attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem. Two Palestinian terrorists, operatives of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLLF), armed with meat cleavers, axes, knives and a pistol, murdered 5 rabbis and a police officer.
Rothman, who was struck on the head with an axe by one of the terrorists, sustained an enormous amount of brain damage and lost vision in one eye. Despite undergoing numerous surgeries, he remained in a medically-induced coma for 11 months before succumbing to his injuries. Rabbi Rothman left behind him a Windsor, Ontario-born wife Risa and 10 children, the youngest of whom is only 4 years old.
Neither Trudeau nor his Liberal party has issued any official statement on the death of Rothman in the terrorist attack.
This commentary appeared on Nov. 10, 2015, on CIJNews.com