Canada: China is committing genocide
TORONTO: Canada’s parliament on Monday voted to pass a motion labelling the treatment of China’s Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang province as “genocide”.
Rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the northwestern region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
The House of Commons voted 266-0 in favour of the motion that was introduced by the opposition Conservative Party on Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and nearly all the cabinet ministers from his ruling Liberal Party were absent from the vote, except for foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau, who chose to abstain.
MPs also passed an amendment to the motion brought by the opposition Bloc Quebecois Party, calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from China to another country “if the Chinese government continues this genocide”. That measure passed with 229 votes for and 29 against.
Beijing is set to host the 2022 edition of the Winter Olympics from February 4 to 20.
Despite the Canadian administration’s attempt to tread carefully in this regard, the motion will only worsen relations between the two countries.
In a pointed statement prior to the vote, China’s ambassador to Ottawa Cong Peiwu said Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition over” the motion.