Canadian Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole on Feb. 16 accused the Chinese Communist Party of genocide in Xinjiang and urged the Canadian government to demand a change of venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
O’Toole told a news conference in Ottawa on Feb. 16 that the Canadian government should not send a delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics because the Chinese Communist Party is accused of committing genocide in Xinjiang and is suppressing the human rights of Hong Kong people, while unjustifiably detaining Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to the Canadian Press Agency. The government held the Winter Olympics.
O’Toole said, “Allowing Canadian sports teams to participate in an Olympics held by a regime that has committed genocide against some of its own citizens goes against the most basic principles of universal morality.”
He urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to convince the International Olympic Committee to change the location of the 2022 Winter Olympics, but he did not call on Canadian athletes to boycott the 2022 Winter Games.
He said, “We will only consider the question of whether our athletes should participate if a change of venue is not possible and there is no change in the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party.”
U.N. experts say the Chinese Communist Party is wantonly holding more than 1 million Uighurs and Kazakhs in concentration camps and that it is forcing sterilization policies in the Xinjiang region.
A report submitted last October by the Canadian House of Commons International Human Rights Commission found that the Communist Party’s illegal detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang, its universal surveillance of Uighurs, its forced slave labor, and its forced sterilization of Uighur women constituted genocide.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded on 15 February that the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee are closely following the demands for a replacement site for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
In early February, MPs from the five major parties in Canada signed an open letter calling for a change of venue for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
On February 3, 180 human rights organizations around the world called on governments to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Recent Comments