Tories get full support in genocide vote
Liberal MPs stand behind Conservative motion backing Muslim Uighurs who are being persecuted in China, which passes by 266-0 margin
OTTAWA — Canada’s House of Commons voted unanimously in favour of a Conservative motion declaring as genocide the atrocities committed against ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province Monday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all of his Liberal cabinet ministers abstained from the politically charged vote, which took place mainly over video, and against the backdrop of all-but-frozen relations between Beijing and Ottawa.
China has imprisoned two Canadian men, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on what the government and dozens of its allies say are bogus charges in retaliation for the RCMP’s December 2018 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau registered a formal abstention on behalf of the government, drawing audible jeers over the video feed.
Dozens of Liberal MPs supported the Conservative motion, which passed by a 266-0 margin, amid the cabinet abstentions in the 338-seat Commons.
The vote is largely symbolic but represents growing political opposition to widespread reports of atrocities against Chinese minorities, accusations China’s communist leaders vociferously deny.
MPs also voted in favour of an amendment from the Bloc Québécois to call upon the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Olympic Games out of China if the genocide continues.
The Liberal support came after the Conservatives called on Liberal MPs to support the party’s motion earlier in the day.
Conservative MPs Michael Chong, who represents Wellington-Halton Hills, and Garnett Genuis were joined by Uighur community members at a teleconference Monday in calling for the government’s support, suggesting unanimity would send a strong signal to China.
“We can no longer ignore this,” said Chong, the party’s foreign affairs critic. “We must call it for what it is: a genocide.”
The Conservatives tabled the motion in the House of Commons last week for vote to formally declare crimes against Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province constitute a genocide.