Honourable senators, I would like to begin by recognizing Senators Jaffer and McPhedran, who spoke in favour of Motion No. 4 earlier in the week. This motion was moved by Senator Housakos, and it calls on the Government of Canada to impose sanctions on the Chinese regime for the inhumane treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority. I want to add my voice to those of my two colleagues by speaking about another shameful aspect of the practices in China.

I cannot remain silent about the human rights violations that the Uighurs are experiencing because, for over a year now, I have been sponsoring Bill S-216, which seeks to combat modern slavery, more specifically the use of forced labour and child labour in the supply chain. The Uighurs being forced to labour in factories both within and outside the autonomous region of Xinjiang have been the most visible face of this problem during the pandemic, the one that has received the most media attention, despite the fact that this practice is also very much present elsewhere in the world. Along with this forced labour, the Uighurs are also enduring torture, sexual violence against women in re-education camps, sterilization and assimilation techniques, as my colleagues described. It is disgusting. Documenting these human rights violations has been a long and difficult process because the authoritarian regime in China controls the comings and goings of reporters and other humanitarian workers.

There’s no way these are isolated cases. In their March 2021 report entitled “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention,” the Newlines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights reported that, according to Chinese propaganda reports, forced labour is necessary to transform the deep-rooted, lazy thinking of rural villagers and lift them out of their supposed backwardness and primitive culture.

An estimated 1 million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have been detained in the Xinjiang region in northwestern China, in camps that are more properly described as prisons. The detainees are systematically transferred to cotton fields or factories. These forced labour programs are connected to the camps, as satellite imagery shows masses of people wearing identical uniforms being transferred from one site to another. There are at least 135 such forced labour factories, and half a million people have been assigned to pick cotton.

Thousands of Uighur workers are transferred to other forced labour facilities outside their region, where they make products that are sold around the world. Thanks to credible testimony, satellite imagery, cross-checking and numerous clues, we can conclude that China’s authoritarian regime is facilitating these mass transfers of Uighur citizens. Why are we talking about forced labour? According to a 2020 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, in these factories far away from home, Uighur people are subject to constant surveillance. They have limited freedom of movement, live in segregated dormitories, are forbidden from practising their religion openly and undergo ideological re-education and Mandarin classes outside working hours. The element of coercion required to meet the International Labour Organization’s definition of forced labour is therefore present. The institute acknowledges that it can’t confirm that all Uighurs working outside Xinjiang are being forced to do so, but there is sufficient evidence to sound the alarm.

That is where these abuses begin to involve Canadians. We are unknowingly consuming goods produced with the forced labour of this Chinese minority that China is attempting to break. Take a store like The Brick, for example. According to a Toronto Star investigation, last November, it brought in 31 shipping containers of refrigerators manufactured by Changhong Meiling, a Chinese company on a U.S. sanctions list for allegedly using forced Uighur labour. The investigation found an additional 405 Canada-bound shipments of clothing from companies whose supply chains trace back to a cotton manufacturer that is also suspected of using forced labour. They include Canadian subsidiaries of apparel giants like Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors are suspected of using forced Uighur labour through their subcontractors. Some of the companies identified are Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.

The global production of solar panels is also using forced Uighur labour in the Xinjiang region of China, according to Sheffield Hallam University in England. Furthermore, a Canadian company is suspected of importing these products.

At the moment, what the Canadian government is doing strikes me as grossly insufficient. Global Affairs Canada requires Canadian businesses operating in Xinjiang to sign an integrity declaration if they want to receive services and support from Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service.

However, Canada is still a long way away from having a blacklist of products prohibited from entering the country. Apparently, products that may have been produced with Uighur or other forced labour are still not being seized at the Canadian border, as they are by our neighbours to the south.

The Senate may not have the power to force the Government of Canada to impose sanctions on China, but we can join the House of Commons in speaking out loud and clear against the persistent human rights violations in China. Thank you.