Bill S-204 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs)

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to create new offences in relation to trafficking in human organs. It also amends the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to provide that a permanent resident or foreign national is inadmissible to Canada if the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration is of the opinion that they have engaged in any activities relating to trafficking in human organs.

Human Organ Trafficking

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition is with respect to forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

The petitioners call on the government in the House to support Bill S-204, which would combat organ harvesting and trafficking by making it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ without consent from the donor.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the fourth petition calls on the House of Commons to pass Bill S-204, a bill currently before the Senate, that deals with forced organ harvesting and trafficking. The bill would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ without the donor's consent.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is in support of Bill S-204, which is currently before the Senate. This bill deals with a human rights issue in China and elsewhere as well: forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

This bill would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ for which there has not been consent. It would also create a mechanism by which a person could be deemed inadmissible to Canada if they had been involved in forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition I present today is on behalf of Canadians from across the country. These Canadians are looking for the government to crack down on the practice of forced organ harvesting that is happening around the world and to prevent Canadians from travelling abroad to purchase organs on the black market.

I look forward to the passage of Bill S-204 in the Senate and its rapid passage in this place as well.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition is in support of Bill S-204. It is a private member's bill in the Senate that would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ that has been taken without the consent of the person whose organ it is, or in a case in which the organ is purchased. This bill has been before the House and the other place in various forms for over 10 years, and it has currently been put forward by Senator Salma Ataullahjan in the Senate.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have to present today is from Canadians across the country who are concerned about forced organ harvesting, which is happening around the world. They are calling for the passage of Bill S-204. This bill would prevent Canadians from travelling abroad to purchase organs that have been illegally harvested.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition is in support of Bill S-204, currently before the Senate.

This bill would make it a criminal offence for someone to go abroad and receive an organ for which there has not been consent. Essentially, it extends extraterritorial jurisdiction in an attempt to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking around the world.

The petitioners note that this is an important human rights bill. Efforts have been made to pass it for over a decade, and they hope this Parliament will finally get Bill S-204 passed into law.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the fourth and final petition is in support of Bill S-204, a bill that would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ in a case where the person from whom the organ comes has not properly consented. This bill seeks to combat the horrific practice of forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

A bill like it almost passed in the last Parliament. Petitioners are hoping this Parliament will be the one that finally gets it done.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Speaker, today is the 20th anniversary of my first election. I will not say that it gives me pleasure, but it seems fitting and appropriate that I am once again returning to a subject that I addressed in my very first address to the House 20 years ago, which at the time was human rights in China and the treatment of Falun Gong.

This is a petition signed by many Canadians on the subject of a piece of legislation currently before the Senate that would deal with the issue of organ harvesting where organs are taken involuntarily, that is to say by people who have been forced into confinement and had organs removed, often with fatal results. This takes place in China and has been done to victimize many Falun Gong practitioners. Testimony was given before the human rights committee when I was the chair by eminent human rights experts, David Kilgour and David Matas, on this subject.

The petitioners ask that Bill S-204, currently before the Senate, be expedited. This bill would amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, to make sure that Canadians are prohibited from travelling abroad in order to benefit from organs that have been removed without consent from their human donors, and also to render it inadmissible for Canada to admit any permanent resident or foreign national who has participated in the trade of involuntarily donated human organs.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am presenting two petitions today.

One is on behalf of Canadians who are very concerned about organ harvesting. It has been proven that there is a practice where Canadians can go overseas and obtain an organ that has been illegally trafficked and taken from someone's body. There is a bill, Bill S-204, that the people who have signed this petition are calling upon the House to support and to move forward as quickly as possible.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in the second petition I am presenting, the petitioners are asking the government to recognize and take seriously the increase in the trafficking of human organs internationally.

As there are currently two bills before Parliament proposing to impede the trafficking of human organs, Bill C-350 as well as Bill S-204, the petitioners call upon the House of Commons and the Government of Canada to pass these bills expeditiously to ensure the reduction of trafficking in human organs.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition in support of Bill S-204, a bill that seeks to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

The bill would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad to receive an organ that had been harvested from an unwilling person. It would also amend immigration law to create a mechanism by which someone could be deemed inadmissible to Canada if that person had been involved in organ harvesting and trafficking.

A bill like this almost passed in the last Parliament, but we ran out of time at the end. The petitioners are hoping that this Parliament will be the one that finally gets the job done.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Madam Speaker, this petition is close to my heart because I am a member of the international human rights subcommittee.

The petitioners request that Bill S-204 be moved through the Senate and then to the House as quickly as possible. The goal of that piece of legislation is to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to prohibit Canadians from travelling abroad in order to acquire human organs that have been removed without consent and to track down any financial transactions that take place as a result of such travel.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Madam Speaker, the second petition is in support of Bill S-204, a bill that would seek to make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ that had been harvested or trafficked.

This also responds to the human rights situation in China and concerns about forced organ harvesting and trafficking that target Falun Gong practitioners, Uighurs and other communities in China. Although Bill S-204 does not name a specific country, it would apply to any case of forced organ harvesting or trafficking.

I commend these petitions to the consideration of all members.

Uighur Muslims in China

[Yasmin Ratansi, Independent, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to raise the plight of over three million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims who are interned in concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. The Chinese government continues to subject them and other Turkic Muslims to forced labour, physical and psychological torture, and forced organ harvesting. Uighur women suffer forcible sterilization.

The Chinese government's method of political and anti-religious indoctrination, destruction of cultural sites and forcing Uighurs to denounce themselves as Muslims is akin to cultural genocide. I call on all our allies and partners to demand the closure of the concentration camps and the release of all detainees. I urge the passage of Bill S-204, which would criminalize organ trafficking and make it a punishable offence for Canadians to partake in transplant tourism.