Madam Speaker, the next petition also deals with human rights and the actions of the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party.
This petition is focused on Hong Kong. It draws the attention of the House to the fact that free and fair trials, traditional independence and the rule of law are key principles in Canada and, sadly, things that have been lost in Hong Kong. Peaceful protesters in Hong Kong have been charged and convicted of penal offences through a judiciary that is now neither impartial nor fair. Some of them have included offences under the national security act, but also under other sections of Hong Kong's penal code.
The petitioners also raise concern about the fact that Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act renders inadmissible to Canada foreign nationals who have been convicted of a foreign offence outside of Canada on the grounds of criminality. This could lead to people who have been involved in pro-democracy activity, and have actually done nothing wrong but simply advocated for their freedoms in Hong Kong, being deemed inadmissible to Canada on the basis of a failure to update our legal realities to the realities on the ground in Hong Kong.
The petitioners, therefore, call on the Government of Canada to take the following steps to recognize the politicization of the judiciary in Hong Kong and its impact on the legitimacy and validity of criminal convictions. They want the government to affirm its position that it would render all national security law-related charges and convictions irrelevant and invalid in terms of determining inadmissibility to Canada; to create a mechanism by which Hong Kong people with pro-democracy movement-related convictions may provide an explanation for such convictions, on the basis of which the government could grant exemptions to Hong Kong people who would otherwise be deemed inadmissible under IRPA; and to work with other like-minded governments such as the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Australia and New Zealand to collaborate around ensuring people from Hong Kong's democracy movement who are not in any real sense criminals would still be able to come to Canada, as well as to other countries to which they might wish to travel.