I'm cognizant of the critical time at which this important hearing falls. The current crisis in Ukraine represents a critical juncture. We have to come and battle between liberal democracy and the growing spread of authoritarian brutalities.
I'm deeply inspired by the bravery of the Ukrainian people resisting Putin's aggression and invasion. The Canadian government has played a key role ensuring accountability for human rights violators and a full mantle of the responsibility, which has not been assumed yet.
The response over the past five days to Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine is a demonstration that we can muster willpower and tools to fight these bad actors. This is the same vigour that should have been applied to the crisis I want to highlight today, the Uighur genocide, which could have been stopped a long time ago had we done so. Where is the utilization of global sanctions? The pursuit of justice must be equally applied to malicious state actors like China. We have just recently observed the aftermath of the Beijing 2022 winter games, another stain on human history.
As the international community, the IOC, sponsors Beijing's standing in front of the entire world. This genocide has been ongoing for years following the warning signs and buildup to the genocide that we likewise ignored in favour of the willful naïveté that insisted on believing that China would reform under the CCP.
This thinking is ignorant of reality and recent history. Irreparable damages to the Uighur people are already a reality, given the tepid, disastrous and slow international response to this staggering 21st century high-tech genocide. Millions of Uighurs have been interned in concentration camps and factories, where they have been utilized as slave labour for major global and international corporations. Thousands of mosques have been destroyed. Uighur children are no longer being born, as forced abortion and sterilization have been utilized to wipe out the next generation. The Uighur diaspora remains cut off from their loved ones living in the so-called free outside world while bearing the agony of constant fear and the burden of survivors' guilt. All the while, they are frequently directly tormented by the Chinese regime itself with its calls and [Inaudible--Editor] Uighur existence. There is no place beyond the regime's grasp, including Canada. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are not the mere instigators of the chaos in our world; they are symptoms of deep-rooted problems the likes of which must be addressed with courage and conviction.
I personally can attest that China is not a good faith actor with which we can continue to believe that typical diplomacy will work. As we look back on history, we can see that refusing to counter bad actors and dictatorial regimes only emboldens them. The incentive structures for Chinese officials, for example, as well as for international organization corporations to provide cover for the Chinese regime must be broken.
Canada, alongside allies and partners, must follow 2021's joint sanction and apply them broadly to all Chinese Communist Party officials tied to the Uighur genocide. “Never again” must be a reality. The time has come for Canada to impose real consequences on the handmaidens of Xi Jinping. We cannot fail to ensure that the horrors the Uighur people have undergone do not expand and are not repeated and targeted at other vulnerable groups such as the Muslims in India.
[Technical difficulties—Editor] increasingly down an Hindu-nationalistic path, vulnerable minorities are at risk. Today we're experiencing genocide in China. Who will know which vulnerable religious ethnic groups will be next? In India the environment has already begun to resemble that of an oppressed one such as the one created by the Communist Party in China. They are targeting religious groups, particularly Muslims, in India.
When we look at issues like this compounding global challenges, they require collective and individual responses from liberal democracies. Canada has been a strong partner in the efforts to address the genocide, including in the UN and with coordinated sanctions early last year, but Canada could do much more.
To begin, Canada could create a refugee program and accept 10,000 Uighur refugees from a third country. The urgency of this issue has become more and more apparent as Uighurs all over the world who have managed to escape are at risk of deportation back into the hands of the murderous regime in Beijing.
As Canada strives to combat climate change, recognize that 48% of the—
