QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs and International Trade
China--Human Rights
May 16, 2019
My question is for Leader of the Government in the Senate. China has forcibly confined between 800,000 to 2 million Uighur Muslims in as many as 1,200 Communist re-education camps, one for every township and county in Xinjiang. In these camps, Muslims are tortured, compelled to renounce Islam and forced to embrace the Communist leadership. They have been physically isolated, physically persecuted and cleansed from their identity. A cultural genocide is underway in China. Yet not a single Chinese official has been sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act.
Why is Canada failing to apply its own law against Chinese officials who have committed clear violations of international human rights standards that have been established to address exactly those types of atrocities?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. Let me say that the Government of Canada and, indeed, working with other governments of a like-minded nature have brought to the attention of the Government of China and other international organizations who have a role in this matter our concerns with respect to the Uighur population in China. It is important that we coordinate our actions so that they can have maximum effect and lead to a change of circumstances. That is what the Government of Canada is intent on doing.
Thank you, Senator Harder. On that point, I commend the government, but it is not enough. It must take actions against Chinese foreign corrupt officials like it did against 30 Russians, 19 Venezuelans, 3 from the South Sudan and 1 leader in Myanmar and 17 Saudi Arabian citizens linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
There is a massive crime against humanity being perpetrated in China. It is exactly the type of situation for which the Magnitsky Act was intended to be used. If they cannot be kept to account in China, at least we can keep them accountable here before it is too late.
The fact of the matter is that Canada never sanctions alone, so will the government rally international support to begin establishing sanctions against corrupt and rights-abusing foreign Chinese officials?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. He notes a number of situations where, quite appropriately, the Government of Canada has taken action. He will know, I hope, that in each of those actions they were coordinated with like-minded countries to have maximum effects in the circumstances. That is the approach the Government of Canada takes on these matters.
