By Brian Dryden,.Canadian Catholic News
[Ottawa – CCN] – Every federal party leader in the House of Commons except the prime minister has voted to condemn the Chinese government for engaging in genocide against some religious minorities in that country.
Canadian MPs overwhelmingly supported a motion in the House of Commons on Feb. 22 to protect religious freedom in China put forward by Conservative MP Michael Chong that calls Chinese government actions against that country’s Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims to be an act of genocide.
MPs from all parties in the House of Commons, including all Liberal MPs who voted, supported the motion that said “in the opinion of the House, the People’s Republic of China has engaged in actions consistent with the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 260, commonly known as the ‘Genocide Convention’, including detention camps and measures intended to prevent births as it pertains to Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.” The vote was recorded as 266-0. There are 338 MPs, but not all MPs voted.
But while some MPs of the governing Liberal Party supported calling what is going on in China “genocide,” neither Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor members of the federal Liberal government’s cabinet voted on the motion.
Conservative Opposition Party Leader Erin O’Toole said the failure of the prime minister and all members of cabinet to vote means that the Liberal government is not willing to stand up for human rights.
This is not the first time that Canada’s parliamentarians have called what is going on in China “genocide” nor is it the first time some Liberals have been more outspoken on the issue than members of the cabinet and the prime minister’s office.
Last fall, religious and human rights groups applauded when the federal Foreign Affairs and International Development subcommittee on International Human Rights issued a unanimous report in October 2020 that said the actions of the Chinese government constitutes a genocide of the Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region of the country.
Concerns over religious freedom in China go beyond just what is happening to Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims, but also there are concerns over repression of Christian and other faith communities.
According to a 2020 report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “religious freedom conditions in China continue to deteriorate.”
“The communist Chinese government has created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor and harass Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falon Gong and other religions. Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang,” the American religious freedom report stated.
“Without doubt, across the board, we are witnessing the worst assault on human rights in China since the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, and the most severe crackdown on religious freedom in China since the Cultural Revolution,” said Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch and a member of the advisory group for the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign.
Rogers made the comment during a Cardus Religious Freedom Institute online seminar held a week after that federal parliamentary committee labeled what is happening in China as “genocide.”
At the time, Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney said Canada must not be afraid to speak out in support of religious freedom in China.
“Canada has been less than resolute when it comes to speaking up about religious persecution in China,” Mulroney said. “The silent treatment never works with the Chinese Communist Party.”
As well, the former Ambassador for Religious Freedom of the short-lived Canadian Office of Religious Freedom also said Canadians worried about human rights issues must speak out about China’s “textbook” example of how to eliminate religious freedom.
“We need to speak about Christians being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of the Cardus Religious Freedom Institute. “This is a largely untold story in North American media. It merits greater attention.”
All Canadians who care about human rights must be willing to speak out in favour of religious freedom, said Bennett.
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