As an independent senator from Manitoba, I recognize that I live on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional territory of the Anishnabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene and the Métis Nation homeland, and that we are gathered here today on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg peoples.

Honourable senators, I rise today in support of applying the Canadian law on Magnitsky sanctions where we have evidence of violations of internationally recognized human rights.

I want to just pause for a moment to say that I am very pleased to have heard that my colleague Senator McCallum was able to stay on track with her speech, but I want to make a request to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle not to continue with the kind of whispering conversations that went on while I am speaking. I also want to ask for colleagues to check their cell phones and to turn off any audible alerts, please.

Over the past couple of months, we have seen and heard testimony about China’s suppression of democratic rights promised to residents of Hong Kong. Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong are facing police brutality. Some are disappearing. While more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are forcibly detained in camps in mainland China, the evidence is now incontrovertible.

I thank Senator Housakos for this motion. We cannot sit by and watch the demolition of democracy, civil and political rights by the Government of China. We have the power to respond to such mockery of human rights, and we must join our allies in taking a collective stand against such cruel use of state power.

The Magnitsky Law was created to promote international justice and respect for human rights. It’s time that our government uses its tools to stand up for human rights and prevent state actors from spreading their disdain for human beings and corruption of democratic values within and beyond their borders.

As a nation, Canada has always stood for freedom and democracy. We have never backed down from protecting fundamental freedoms, human rights and the rule of law. Dear colleagues, it is now time to turn those words into action and stand up against a regime that mercilessly cracks down on dissent, denying freedom of speech. China has broken its promise to the world to maintain the “one country, two systems” constitutional principle in Hong Kong. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has openly declared no separation of powers, despite the 1997 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The situation has gotten worse since the passage of China’s draconian national security law, which has endangered the lives and liberties of pro-democracy activists and their supporters. People living in Hong Kong, including the approximately 300,000 Canadians and their family members, face a grim future. We know their safety is at risk because threats have been made openly and on the public record by China’s ambassador to Canada, warning Canada against accepting refugees from Hong Kong.

The threat is real, colleagues, and it is at our door. China wants us blatantly to disregard human rights and the rule of law, and they are using Canadian lives as bargaining chips. We cannot allow this to continue.

Canada’s Magnitsky Law provides for measures that can be taken against foreign nationals who have committed gross violations of human rights. This law allows the government to impose financial restrictions, freeze assets and prohibit financial transactions by known human rights abusers.

Are you wondering what this achieves? Consider, please, that tangible and timely consequences for abusers of human rights can be achieved. The sanctions block named officials from owning property or investing in Canada or doing business with Canadian entities operating anywhere in the world. The Magnitsky legislation delivers a decisive blow to the financial security of the abusers and their associates as a consequence for their choice to use their positions of power and privilege to violate human rights.

Canada has previously used this legislation to sanction human rights abusers from Russia and Venezuela, preventing them from using the Canadian banking system. In November 2018, Canada sanctioned 17 Saudi nationals who were responsible for, or complicit in, the torture and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The law furthers Canada’s support for human rights through the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions against foreign states and nationals. It better enables us to protect human rights defenders.

Not only do we have the power to stand against tyranny, but it is also our responsibility to take a firm stand against China and join our allies in protecting fundamental freedoms and human dignity. There have been reports of the Chinese government’s systematic efforts to slash birth rates among the Uighurs, including the subjection of women to pregnancy checks, forced intrauterine devices, sterilization and abortion.

Colleagues, we cannot sit around and watch in horror the torture of Muslim minorities and the erasure of their religion, language and culture in detention camps in China. We cannot just roll over for China so that they can continue to apply their draconian security law that strips citizens in Hong Kong of their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Do not forget, colleagues, that this security law also extends to non-permanent residents, including those from outside Hong Kong. The Chinese are already holding Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in squalor and deprivation on arbitrary allegations of espionage. What is stopping them from arresting other innocent Canadians living in or visiting Hong Kong?

Our good faith has been abused. Our friendship, built up over 50 years, has been rejected, and some Canadians here and in Hong Kong are at risk of China’s aggressions. China has shown us time and again its disregard for human rights and international human rights conventions.

What are we seeing? Are we watching one of the most powerful states in the world morph into a pariah, chomping at every right in sight? Canada needs to act, and we need to act now.

We have watched the Chinese authorities question the survival of Taiwan, clamp down on religious and cultural freedoms in Tibet. We have been hearing testimony of gross human rights violations from Uighur detainees in concentration camps. And now the Chinese government is looking to strip Hong Kong citizens of their fundamental freedoms and human rights. It is time we took a firm stand against Chinese tyranny, disregard for human rights and the rule of law. Let us urge our government to start by applying Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials who have been instrumental in gross violations of human rights.

Honourable colleagues, I also want to remind you that applying the Magnitsky sanctions is one of many options for direct action. There are several other strategies that the government can employ in addition to the Magnitsky legislation, including expediting asylum applications from Hong Kong human rights activists, allowing the sponsorship of close family members, and welcoming more college and university students from Hong Kong to Canada.

Please join me in asking our government to take a much-needed stand. We need to join our allies and show oppressors and abusers of human rights that Canada will not sit by.

In the words of a cherished doyenne of our Senate, the Honourable Raynell Andreychuk, at second reading of her Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Bill, the Sergei Magnitsky Law, she said, “Canada must continue to be a voice for justice, rule of law and human rights adherence.”

Colleagues, let us use this motion to stand together as parliamentarians for freedom and democracy, and to demonstrate that we are prepared to take action, beyond words, to protect human rights. Thank you. Meegwetch.