Honourable senators, last week, Hong Kong Watch, a U.K.-based organization dedicated to monitoring and exposing threats against Hong Kong’s basic freedoms and autonomy, was itself threatened under the draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese communist regime. In addition to using this law to block Hong Kong Watch’s website in Hong Kong, Beijing is threatening the organization, of which I am a patron, with a fine and the imprisonment of its Chief Executive, Benedict Rogers, for telling the world the truth about what is happening in Hong Kong.

This organization is not based in Hong Kong, yet the Chinese regime feels very comfortable threatening them and threatening Mr. Rogers, a British citizen, just as the Chinese Ambassador to Canada felt very comfortable threatening Canadian parliamentarians in late 2019 because of a motion I brought forward, along with Senator Ngo.

As Lord Patten of Barnes, the last British Governor of Hong Kong and a patron of Hong Kong Watch commented:

This is another disgraceful example of Mr Putin’s friends in Beijing and their quislings in Hong Kong trying not only to stamp out freedom of expression and information in Hong Kong but also to internationalise their campaign against evidence, freedom and honesty.

Lord Alton of Liverpool, a patron of Hong Kong Watch and one of the parliamentarians sanctioned by China, said last year:

This represents a significant escalation in the Chinese Communist Party regime’s attempts to silence dissent well beyond its borders . . . .

Hong Kong Watch’s Chief Executive, Benedict Rogers, himself said:

By threatening a UK-based NGO with financial penalties and jail for merely reporting on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, this letter exemplifies why Hong Kong’s National Security Law is so dangerous.

We will not be silenced by an authoritarian security apparatus which, through a mixture of senseless brutality and ineptitude, has triggered rapid mass migration out of the city and shut down civil society.

I echo all of these statements, and I remind everyone of the growing threat from the communist regime of China right here in Canada. Hong Kong Watch has trustees, patrons, staff and volunteers here in Canada, so these threats should very much be a matter of interest to this chamber and to the Canadian government.

I call on this chamber and the Government of Canada to join me in expressing support for Mr. Rogers and everyone involved in Hong Kong Watch and to make it clear that the draconian national security law will not be used to threaten or intimidate Canadians or anyone else on Canadian soil, nor anyone else involved with Hong Kong Watch anywhere in the world.

Thank you, colleagues.