Canada’s Footprint

“We are extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government. That is why we are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic, Paralympic Games this winter,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

The diplomatic boycott means that government officials will not be attending the Olympic games but athletes will still be able to compete. Canada has joined the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in the diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet may be unwilling to call China’s treatment of the Uyghurs genocide, but that’s not stopping a Canadian Crown corporation from doing so. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is holding an virtual event Thursday billed as Exposing the Uyghur Genocide. The event includes the German anthropologist Adrian Zenz, who’s being sued by Chinese interests for his work on Beijing’s mistreatment of Muslim minorities.

https://humanrights.ca/event/the-uyghur-genocide-in-china

“Today, we have taken coordinated action on measures, in parallel to measures by the European Union, that send a clear message about the human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang. We are united in calling for China to end its repressive practices against Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, and to release those arbitrarily detained.

Read The Full Release Here

Furthermore, Canada announced it is imposing new sanctions against 4 officials and 1 entity under the Special Economic Measures (People’s Republic of China) Regulations, based on their participation in gross and systematic human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). 

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, and the motion adopted by the Subcommittee on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, the Subcommittee has studied the Human Rights Situation of the Uyghurs.

Read The Full Report Here

A non-binding motion introduced by the Conservative Party was passed in a 266-0 margin in favour of formally labeling China’s human rights abuses as genocide. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all his cabinet ministers abstained from the vote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was reluctant to declare China’s actions as genocide, saying that the international community should only use the term when it is “clearly and properly justified.”

The United States became the first country to declare China’s actions against the Uyghurs as genocide. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement a day before Joe Biden was inaugurated as President. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said Canada takes those allegations “very seriously.”

Canada joined other countries in cracking down on companies who are doing business with certain firms based in Xinjiang. “Canada is deeply concerned regarding the mass arbitrary detention and mistreatment of [Uyghurs] and other ethnic minorities by Chinese authorities,” read a quote in the press release.

Thereafter, China hit back at Canada over its new measures on forced labour in the Xinjiang region, condemning the move and stating that it exposes Canada’s “hypocritical and ugly face.”

Canada’s foreign minister, François-Philippe Champagne, reiterated the country’s concern about China’s persecution of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in its Xinjiang province, but stopped short of calling it a genocide as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations (Bob Rae) did.

Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations says he’s called on the organization’s Human Rights Council to investigate whether China’s persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province should be considered an act of genocide.

Members of Parliament push for the Canadian government to impose sanctions on Chinese officials following a parliamentary study that found the country’s treatment of its Uyghur population constitutes “genocide.”

In its statement, the Subcommittee “is persuaded that the actions of the Chinese Communist Party constitute genocide as laid out in the Genocide Convention.” This Subcommittee convened in 2018 with testimony from several witnesses but stagnated until an urgent meeting was held in July 2020. The testimonies were from survivors of the atrocities in China, academics and civil society. 

Read The Full Press Statement Here ; Read The Full Study Here

Thereafter, China’s foreign ministry lashed out at Canada after a House of Commons subcommittee concluded that the state’s mistreatment of Uyghurs living in Xinjiang province amounts to a policy of genocide.

Detention camps housing perhaps as many as one million ethnic Uyghurs in western China are nothing more than “vocational training centres,” the China’s ambassador to Canada insisted.

Canadian Chinese and Canadian Uyghur activists told of being threatened with rape or even death if they keep speaking out against violations committed by China against the Uyghurs, or the persecution of Hong Kong residents clinging to political rights.

China’s new ambassador to Canada threatens “very firm countermeasures” if Parliament adopts a motion calling for sanctions over alleged Chinese human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

The Trudeau government has picked Dominic Barton as its new ambassador to China. According to a corporate biography posted online, Barton has spent time in China before. He was based in Shanghai as the company’s Asia chairman from 2004 to 2009.