Madam Speaker, first I would like to state that I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean. I would also like to congratulate him today for the leadership he has shown on this file at the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development and also for spearheading an open letter entitled “The Games of Shame”, which was published a few days ago in certain media across Canada.
I know that my colleague is greatly concerned about this issue and has worked hard to have members of the subcommittee unanimously recognize that a genocide is actually taking place in China and to bring about this cross-party gesture which transcends the House. In fact, representatives of all stripes at Quebec's National Assembly and also people from civil society, such as the former Liberal justice minister and founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Irwin Cotler, were also brought in. None of this could have happened without the efforts of our colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean, and I believe he will have a place in history for it.
What is a genocide? I think that is the first question we need to ask. What makes this a genocide?
I am sure that when my colleague speaks in a few minutes he will share some of the horrific testimony heard by the members of the subcommittee studying what is going on in Xinjiang, in particular.
Witnesses have spoken about concentration camps euphemistically referred to as re-education camps. This reminds me of the inscription over the entrance to Nazi concentration camps, “Work sets you free”. In other words, if people worked hard, they were eventually freed. This is the kind of euphemism used to describe concentration camps. There was also talk of rape, children being separated from their families, slavery, surveillance and mass sterilization. These facts have been reported around the world.
I want to get back to the meaning of genocide. I remind members that in the aftermath of the Second World War, the world was shocked to learn what had happened in Nazi concentration camps, where Jews, gypsies and gay people faced mass extermination.
One of the first conventions, if not the very first, adopted by the newly founded United Nations after the Second World War was the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which Canada ratified in 1952.
Article II of the convention explains what is meant by the term “genocide”. It reads, and I quote:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
It is important to note that not all of the criteria need to be present to constitute genocide; rather, only one criterion needs to be observed for acts to constitute genocide within the meaning of international law.
The convention goes even further. In article I, it states, and I quote:
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
I remind you that Canada signed that agreement.
Since the early 2000s, the international community has been concerned about human rights violations against a number of religious minorities in the People's Republic of China, including practitioners of Falun Gong, Uighurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Tibetans, among others. Several reports, including those from Amnesty International, point to flagrant violations.
I heard the minister talk about the need for consensus among international partners, or at least agreement with a certain number of them, in order to conclude that genocide is indeed taking place in the People's Republic of China. The minister claimed that he did not have enough information to reach that conclusion and that it would take an international observer mission to obtain evidence that genocide is indeed happening in the People's Republic of China.
Curiously, that reminds me of what Global Affairs officials said to members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development about the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Officials were unable to say what was happening on the ground. However, we learned after the fact that the former minister was well aware of what was going on in the region.
I am respectfully of the opinion that the government knows full well what is happening in the People’s Republic of China. In addition, when it comes to relying on international partners, which seems to mean so much to the minister, I would like to point out that the European Parliament published a declaration in 2016 stipulating that “[t]here have been persistent credible reports on systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China, primarily from practitioners of Falun Gong peaceful meditation and exercises but also from Uighurs, Tibetans and Christians.”
The members of the United States Congress are also aware of this. Both the current and the former administrations refer to this as genocide. A BBC news story reported that genocidal actions are definitely being committed in the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese government responded by prohibiting the network in its country.
I think that the minister cannot bury his head in the sand forever and claim that he is unaware of what is going on in the People’s Republic of China jus to avoid taking action. As my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean pointed out, some Liberal members on the Subcommittee on International Human Rights signed an open letter entitled “The Games of Shame”. What is the government waiting for to follow its MPs’ lead and recognize that there is a genocide taking place in China?
It is important to point out that this Conservative motion is very welcome. However, I feel I have to mention in passing that its author, the Conservative Party critic for foreign affairs, who just yesterday made all sorts of statements asking that the next Olympic Games be moved to another city, failed to sign the open letter. Moreover, Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party was happy to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games, which took place while it was in power. As the former leader of the Green Party was saying earlier, the Conservative Party even negotiated an investment agreement and collaborated with China on the expulsion of Chinese nationals. This being said, they say that is never too late to see the light. We were therefore pleased to see the Conservatives put forward this motion today.
To answer the Minister’s arguments, I would say that the People’s Republic of China is certainly an important partner, but that in no way justifies turning a blind eye to such abuses of Chinese citizens’ most inalienable rights, which unfortunately seem to have been proven to be true.
If Canada has even the slightest desire to continue positioning itself as a leader in respecting human rights, it will have to walk the talk.