MONTRÉAL, Québec (CU)_The Canadian parliament on Monday (Feb 22) passed a non-binding motion which says that China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority constitutes genocide. Although the motion was passed by a vote of 266-0 in the House of Commons, however, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and almost his entire cabinet abstained.
Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole told reporters that the testimonies of more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims who are being detained in camps have been “horrifying”.
However, China has denied these claims, saying it is merely running a voluntary employment and language-training program at the camps.
Rejecting the motion, Chinese ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu said “there is no so-called ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang at all”. He urged the North American nation to “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs”, in order to forestall further disruption of China-Canada relations.
“A few people in Canada and some other western countries are talking about upholding values, but one important part of the values should be: respect facts and stop spreading disinformation and even lies,” Cong said in a statement.
Since December 2018, relations between Beijing and Ottawa have been deteriorating, following the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver. Not long after, Beijing arrested two Canadians – Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – accusing the pair of spying. The move was widely perceived in the West as retaliation for Meng’s arrest, although Beijing denies these allegations.
Last week, Canada led a joint declaration signed by more than 50 countries targeting the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals. However, Beijing heavily criticised the statement, claiming that the move was a “despicable and hypocritical act”.
When inquired about the potential economic impacts of the recent motion, O’Toole noted that “[Canada’s] values are not for sale”.
“There’s real suffering going on in China. There’s a genocide happening and Canadians, while we’re free traders and I’m very proud to be a free-market party, our values are not for sale,” he said.
