Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau has called out China for its “systemic abuse and human rights violations” against Uighur Muslims and crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong and Tibet. Trudeau’s comments came after China urged the United Nations (UN) to probe crimes against Indigenous children in Canada.
The Straits Times reported Trudeau telling reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that “The journey of reconciliation is a long one, but it is a journey that we are on. China does not recognise that there is even a problem. That’s a pretty fundamental difference. That is why Canadians, and people from around the world, are speaking up for people like the Uighurs who find themselves voiceless, faced with a government that will not recognise what’s happening to them.” “Where is China’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Where is their truth? Where is the openness that Canada has always shown and the responsibility that it took for the terrible mistakes of the past?” Trudeau said.
On Tuesday, China urged the UN to launch an independent investigation into Canada’s crimes against its people of the First Nations. Channel News Asia quoted Jiang Duan, a senior official at China’s mission to the UN Office in Geneva, urging the Human Rights Council (HRC) to investigate the matter. “We call for a thorough and impartial investigation into all cases where crimes were committed against the indigenous people, especially children, to bring those responsible to justice and offer a full remedy to victims,” the official said. The suggestion was supported by China’s allies, including Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Iran, Syria and Venezuela, all of which have been previously criticised by Western nations for human rights violations.
For every label of #humanright violations they've put on China, they can find a prototype in themselves. pic.twitter.com/24Mpe4CnFW
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) June 22, 2021
Canada later delivered a joint statement calling for unrestricted access to China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region (XAR) to investigate the alleged mass detention of Uighur Muslims. The statement was made on behalf of more than 40 countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United States. However, Beijing also preempted the allegations in advance and defended itself by attacking Canada’s colonial past.
“We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,” Al Jazeera reported Canada’s UN ambassador, Leslie Norton, saying. She stressed that Beijing must allow UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet and other independent observers “immediate, meaningful and unfettered access” to Xinjiang and end the “arbitrary detention” of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. “Credible reports indicate that over a million people are arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uighurs and members of other minorities and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture,” Canada’s statement added.
In May, the bodies of 215 Indigenous children were discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Following this, Marta Hurtado, a spokesperson from the UN Human Rights Office, called on the Canadian government earlier this month to investigate the deaths of Indigenous children at former residential schools. A report by Global News stated that Trudeau acknowledged that the findings in Kamloops show there may be others who have “yet to be found in other places.” He also lamented the “terrible loneliness” and “unthinkable abuse” these students suffered at these schools and added that the fact that so many children were robbed of their lives is “the fault of Canada.”
The recent exchange of words between the two countries also reflects a further deterioration in bilateral relations, with Canada having been locked in a trade and diplomatic dispute with China since 2018.