By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, July 15: 64 MPs and 4 senators in Canada have demanded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the Magnitsky Act to levy sanctions on top Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. The letter signed by MPs, senators and various community leaders is another attempt to put pressure on the Canadian government to toughen its stance on China.
The signature campaign was organized by a group of pro-democracy Hong Kongers in Canada called the Alliance Canada Hong Kong (ACHK). The letter urged the Canadian government to use the Magnitsky Act to impose financial and other restrictions on foreign nationals complicit in violating international recognised human rights. The law also allows the government to freeze assets owned by foreign nationals and prohibit financial transactions by known human rights abusers.
The letter has also been backed by Liberal MPs, Judy Sgro and John Mckay and Green Party leader Elizabeth May along with a substantial portion of signatures from the Conservative caucus. PM Trudeau’s appointee to the Senate, Marilou McPhedran, and Pierre Dalphon, also signed their names to the list of lawmakers demanding action against the CCP regime.
In an interview with CBS News, MP McKay said that he cannot stay silent over Chinese persecution of the Uyghur minority by “virtual enslavement and imprisonment of an entire population” and destroy the democratic rights of Hong Kongers. “It’s a colossal bully play by an emergent power and there’s only one way to deal with a bully,” McKay said on China’s detention of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
He warned that China’s ambassador to Canada has promised to retaliate with ‘firm countermeasures’ if Ottawa acts on such an appeal. Lawmaker Mckay added that it is time to take a stand against “warrior diplomacy nonsense”, adding that Canada should be able to recognise the ‘asymmetrical conflict’ in order to strategize as soon as possible. He further noted that Canada and Western allies should form a united front against China in a NATO-like approach to confront China with a policy of “an attack on one is an attack on all.”
The letter quoted Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne who earlier this month said that sanctions are important to hold perpetrators of gross human rights violations. “As a leader on the international human rights discussion, to invoke Magnitsky sanctions against these officials is a strong and symbolic action that is consistent with how Canada has applied this act in the past,” the letter reads.
