Muhammad Ali Bukhari, CNNG News, Toronto
[GTranslate]On Monday, 266 out of Canada’s 338 members of parliament voted against this motion. Although most cabinet members were absent from voting. The House of Commons also explicitly blames for the country’s indiscriminate killings of Uighurs and other Turkish-speaking Muslims in China.
The said proposal was made in Parliament by the opposition Conservative Party. It said China’s state action in the Xinjiang region was tantamount to genocide in accordance with UN policy adopted in 1948. In addition to the Conservative members, a significant number of ruling Liberal party MPs voted in favour of the proposal. The final vote count showed that 266 MPs present voted without any opposition, only two MPs have remained officially absent.
However, notably, most members of his cabinet, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, remained abstained. The only foreign minister to be present was Marc Garneau, who while his turn came said: “on behalf of the Canadian government” he will remain absent. In fact, the proposal also calls on the government to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing.
The resolution was passed in a situation where China’s minority Uyghur community gathered with placards and pictures of missing relatives with the slogan “Stop the Uyghur Genocide” amid heavy snowfall outside Parliament Hill. On the other hand, the Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu strongly opposed the proposal, saying it amounted to interference in China’s internal affairs. He conclusively meant, “Stop propaganda and lies.” Even in China itself, the proposal has been condemned. At the time, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, said on Tuesday that China “strongly opposed” to Canada.
Foreign Minister Marc Garneau also issued a statement after the Canadian parliament voted in favour of the proposal. “According to the report, [Canada] is deeply concerned about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including arbitrary detention, forced political education, forced labour, torture and sterilization,” he said. That is why Canada will work with other international partners to establish the human rights of minorities, and we call for an international inquiry into the genocide on the basis of transparency. At the same time, we want to know the real situation, subject to an impartial international investigation.”
Despite all this, it is not clear how the Liberal government will move towards China. Because Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has been detained in Canada for more than two years, while Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been detained in China.
On Monday morning, however, Michael Chong, the Conservative Party’s parliamentary critic for foreign affairs, in a press conference said, allegations of crimes against China were numerous. He spoke referring to those who fled, satellite images, videos, documents and media reports from major US and international news outlets. He also said, “Today is a time for moral clarity. We can no longer ignore this, and we must call it for what it’s a genocide.”
