Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to everyone. Thanks for this invitation.
My name is Mehmet Tohti, and I call myself a lifelong activist. I currently work as executive director of the Ottawa-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project. As a leading voice of Uighur Canadians, we do research, documentation and advocacy work to promote the rights of Uighurs and other Turkic people in East Turkestan who are facing ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity by the Government of China.
I would make one quick note here. We are Uighur Canadians, not members of the Chinese diaspora. It is precisely because we refuse to become Chinese and to assimilate into Chinese culture by stubbornly preserving our ethnic, religious and linguistic identities that we are subjected to ongoing genocide in China. Similarly in that regard, Tibetans and Mongols are also not identifying themselves as Chinese Canadians or as members of the Chinese diaspora.
The topic of Chinese state interference is not a novelty for us. For decades, Uighur Canadians have been subjected to all forms of intimidation and harassment by the Chinese Communist Party. Since my exile life began more than 33 years ago, I personally have experienced all forms of China’s interference in my personal life, including total isolation from my family members and siblings in East Turkestan, constant threats, intimidation and harassment.
In December 2003, China’s Ministry of Public Security announced the first batch on the so-called terrorist organizations list. An organization that I chaired at the time, called the World Uyghur Youth Congress, registered in Germany, was included on the terrorist list. Because of that misinformation and attack against us, I personally am banned or cannot travel to many states, such as Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan or central Asian states and Middle Eastern countries. For the past 32 years since I left my homeland, I have been unable to visit my relatives. They cannot come and visit me in Canada. No one in my family has been given a visa. That’s why I call it total isolation.
Exactly 17 years ago, I engaged in the case of the Uighur Canadian Huseyin Celil, who was kidnapped in Uzbekistan and sentenced to life in prison in China. I started noticing suspicious activities around me after my campaign.
I would like to give you a comparison of what we are talking about today and what the topic was 16 years ago. This is a passage from the Maclean’s magazine coverage by Charlie Gillis, dated May 14, 2007. The headline of the article is “Beijing is always watching”:
The official, who identified himself only as a member of China's infamous Overseas Affairs Commission, had a laundry list of instructions. Tohti was to cease efforts to draw sympathy in Canada to the Uyghurs—the oppressed, largely Muslim population of Xinjiang province that has become a thorn in Beijing's side; he was to stop spreading allegations of cultural genocide against the People's Republic; most importantly, he was not to attend an upcoming conference in Germany where Uyghur groups from around the world planned to form an international congress. “We have your mother here, and your brother, too,” he added cryptically, noting that police had driven the pair some 260 km to a regional police headquarters in Kashgar to help deliver Beijing's message. “We can do whatever we want.”
Indeed. In the three years since that night, the 43-year-old Tohti has had enough brushes with China's long-armed security apparatus to conclude Beijing's agents are still doing much as they please—not just in China, but [here] in Canada....
I would refer that to you for a later read.
In July 2020, right before testifying before a parliamentary committee, I received a Twitter message that said, “YOUR F*** MOTHER IS DEAD”. It came from someone in Kunming city, nearly 4,000 kilometres from where my mother lived, just to stop me from testifying before the parliamentary committee.
I'll give you another recent example. On January 16, less than two months ago, I received a phone call again from the Chinese state police in Urumchi, who had taken my uncle, my mother’s brother, hostage.
I was told that my two sisters were dead, and so was my mother. The whereabouts of my three brothers, their spouses and children are unknown.
It was 15 days prior to the vote on Motion M-62 in the House for the resettlement of 10,000 Uighur refugees. That was the campaign I started in 2017. Beijing is watching every day. There are threats, intimidation and harassment.
Thank you.