Canada lawmakers: China is committing “Genocide” against Uighur Muslims

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Canada’s House of Commons has passed a non-binding motion declaring that China is committing “Genocide” in its treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority community in Xinjiang, DW reports. The motion was introduced by opposition conservative lawmakers on Monday and passed by 266-0 votes; Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abstained, as did his cabinet.

China has been widely condemned by international human rights groups who report that Beijing has incarcerated around one million Uighurs in prisons and forced labor camps in Xinjiang. According to DW, there have been reports of forced sterilization as well.

However, PM Trudeau has been reticent about using the term “genocide” to describe what the Chinese government is doing to the Uighur community: Trudeau recently described the word is an “extremely loaded term,” DW said.

“When it comes to the application of the very specific word genocide, we simply need to ensure that all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed before a determination like that is made,” Trudeau affirmed in a statement last week.

In any event, Trudeau said the Canadian government is consulting with allies about whether to use the word “genocide” to describe what is happening to the Uighurs, DW reports. In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said the government “takes any allegations of genocide extremely seriously,” and is “deeply disturbed by horrific reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang.”

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