PM, CABINET ABSTAIN ON UYGHURS
Declaration likely to draw rebuke from Beijing
OTTAWA • The House of Commons voted Monday to formally label the Chinese government’s actions against the Uyghur people a genocide, a move likely to draw a strong rebuke from Beijing, one of Canada’s former ambassadors warned.
The non-binding Conservative motion called on the government to denounce the genocide and urged the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Games from Beijing.
The Liberal cabinet, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, abstained from the vote or simply failed to show. But the motion received otherwise unanimous support passing 266 to 0, with many backbench Liberals MPS voting in favour.
The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group in the Xinjiang region of China. Multiple human rights groups and journalists have documented widespread abuse of the Uyghurs including massive detention camps, arbitrary violence, forced sterilization and sexual violence directed against Uyghur women.
Guy Saint-jacques, Canada’s former ambassador to China, said the government in Beijing will likely show its displeasure because it wants to send a message to other nations.
“China is very concerned that Western countries will get together and declare that genocide is taking place,” he said. “(China) may want to impose sanctions, further sanctions on Canada, so as to warn other countries that would want to do the same thing that they will pay a price.”
Over the weekend, China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, disputed any genocide was taking place and said Ottawa should butt out of the country’s internal affairs.
“We firmly oppose that because it runs counter to the facts. And it’s like, you know, interfering in our domestic affairs,” Cong told The Canadian Press. “There’s nothing like genocide happening in Xinjiang at all.”
A Liberal government source speaking on background said the cabinet abstained to draw a distinction between the government’s view and Parliament’s and to continue to address the issue diplomatically. Cabinet wants to address it with allies alongside the other issues Canada has with China, including the ongoing detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.
The source said Trudeau raised the issue during last week’s G7 meeting and the government wants a coordinated international response to China. The U.S. has also labelled China’s actions as a genocide, a move former president Donald Trump made in his last days in office, but which has been supported by the incoming Biden administration. Other Western nations have raised concerns, but most have not formally labelled China’s actions a genocide.
On Friday, Trudeau said he was concerned about what was happening in Xinjiang, but declined to outline what his government would do. “We are, of course, extremely concerned with the situation around human rights in Xinjiang. We have expressed many times our apprehension and our disagreement with what is going on.”
Saint-jacques said the Chinese government will see the vote as a direct attack and won’t place any importance on Trudeau and his cabinet abstaining.
“They won’t mark a difference between the government and Parliament, for them it’s all the same.”
Saint-jacques said the Chinese, for instance, didn’t understand why the Liberal government couldn’t simply order Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou released following her arrest. He said the Chinese system doesn’t separate between courts, parliaments and government.
Saint-jacques said the Chinese government will look to places where they can punish a Canadian industry, but only where it won’t hurt China’s economy.
“They may want to put more pressure on Canada by imposing tariffs on Canadian products that they can source elsewhere,” he said. “They will have to think about where they want to hurt us. And again, it will be a warning to other countries that if you dare to go this route, you will pay a price as well.”
In 2018, not long after Wanzhou’s arrest, in addition to detaining Kovrig and Spavor, the Chinese government imposed export restrictions on Canadian canola.
Brian Innes, vice-president of public affairs with the Canola Council of Canada, said that continues to hit Canadian farmers.
“Since canola seed exports were blocked almost two years ago, our exports of canola seed to China have been down 50 to 70 per cent,” he said in an email. “This has lowered prices, and, in turn, reduced the amount of canola grown by farmers.”
The council declined to comment on Monday’s vote, but said exports of the oilseed have fallen from $2.8 billion in 2018, before the restrictions, to $800 million in 2019 and $1.4 billion in 2020.
Innes said China buys more than half of the canola sold around the world.
“The Chinese restrictions have meant less value is coming from canola exports to support our industry here in Canada,” he said. “When access to the world’s largest market is blocked, this reduces our ability to get the most value for our product in global markets.”
Conservative leader Erin O’toole said he is aware there will be consequences of the vote in Parliament, but that shouldn’t stop Canada from acting. “There’s already some security risks and trade disruption risks with China, but that shouldn’t deter us doing what is right.”
O’toole said Trudeau’s absence on the vote is an appalling failure of his leadership.
“We call on the Trudeau government to show up for work on human rights and stop their naive approach to China. The Liberal government needs to stand up for what is right” he said.
He said Trudeau should begin by recognizing the motion in Parliament, call for the Olympics to be moved and start working with allies to apply more pressure on the Chinese government.