Fri 19 February 2021:
The Conservative Party introduced a motion in the Canadian parliament Thursday to declare the human rights abuses of the minority Uighur Muslims by China as genocide.
The move is the latest by the Tories to ratchet up pressure on the Liberal government to move beyond calls for an international investigation and to take action in response to the situation faced by Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
There is satellite imagery of the camps, survivor testimony, expert reports, recognition by both U.S. Democrat and Republican officials and even a report by Canadians MP, noted Tory MP Garnett Genuis.
“The victims have spoken. The Prime Minister should believe them. Why the continuing denial?,” he said.
The motion was debated and while it has a good chance of passing despite the qualms of the Justin Trudeau government to use the genocide label, the vote on the motion will not take place until Monday.
Michael Chong, the foreign affairs critic for the opposition Conservatives, said there is no doubt the Chinese government actions constitute genocide against the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, although Beijing vehemently denies the mistreatment.
Upward of one million Uighurs are being held by Chinese government in concentration camps where witnesses report they are subjected to sexual violence, “deradicalization”, birth limiting measures and are under constant surveillance.
“The evidence is clear,” Chong said Thursday. “A genocide is taking place and Canada should not evade its responsibility. We must show leadership. We must take a stand.”
The other political parties – the Bloc Quebecois, Green and New Democrats – all spoke in favor of the motion Thursday.
If they combine and join the Conservatives to vote in favor of the motion, it will pass, since Prime Minister Trudeau leads a minority Liberal government.
But while Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said Thursday that the abuses of the Uighurs are “alarming,” he was reluctant for Canada to apply the genocide label without the official support of other countries.
The Liberals have said they have concerns about human rights violations, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stopped short of echoing U.S. officials, human rights advocates and legal scholars who say those violations amount to a genocide.
Rather, Garneau said he would like to employ a team of independent investigators, with the backing of other allies, to go to the camps to see the abuses for themselves and report back.
Trudeau himself is on record as calling genocide an “extremely loaded” term.
Despite Trudeau’s words, a House of Commons committee headed by a Liberal has investigated the Uighur situation and said it meets the definition of genocide as stated in the Genocide Convention of 1948.
Earlier on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada and other countries are mulling labelling China’s treatment of Uighurs a genocide.
“It’s a word that is extremely loaded and is certainly something that we should be looking at in the case of the Uighurs,” Trudeau was quoted as saying by news agency AFP in a news conference.
“I know the international community is looking very carefully at that and we are certainly among them, and we will not hesitate from being part of the determinations around these sorts of things.”
Trudeau also said there was “no question” of the immense human rights violations reported happening in Xinjiang.
“We are extremely concerned about that and have highlighted our concerns many times. But when it comes to the application of the very specific word ‘genocide,’ we simply need to ensure that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed in the processes before a determination like that is made,” the Canadian CM said.
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