To Whom It May Concern,
Please find attached a letter from the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada urging the Government of Canada to include the denial of the Srebrenica genocide in its regulatory framework as part of the ongoing commitment to address online safety. The Bosnian Community in Canada, as well as the competent State authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are appealing to the government to ensure content glorifying the Srebrenica genocide, denying it as a fact and promoting any kind of ethnic and anti-Bosniak hatred in this context is monitored and removed from Canada’s online spaces.
In a recent study on Canadian far-right extremist circles and their behavior conducted by Moonshot – a leading UK-based organization specializing in countering violent extremism – research investigation demonstrates a serious and concerning presence of anti-Bosniak propaganda and Srebrenica genocide glorification. For instance, through its “Redirect Method,” the study discovered that a song by Željko Grmuša (an ultra-nationalist Serb) glorifying the Srebrenica genocide and promoting hate speech against Bosniaks is in the top 10 most listened to in Ontario among far-right online users. Grmuša’s song that topped the list is “Karadžić, Lead Your Serbs,” – a propaganda track glorifying Radovan Karadžić who for his involvement during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Karadžić was the mastermind of the Srebrenica genocide and other massacres in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is noteworthy that the Christchurch terrorist played this song on his way to committing the horrific massacre in New Zealand in 2019.
Please note that the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada is willing to engage with the relevant Government authorities and experts to discuss the approaches to banning Srebrenica genocide denial and anti-Bosniak hatred from Canada’s online platforms. Our experts would be pleased to discuss the nature of the potential content identified as needing removal from the online platforms operating and active in Canada that ought to be included in the Government’s hash database.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.