A group of Canadian politicians from all parties are calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved from China to a different country.
The letter, signed by nearly 20 MPs and Quebec MNAs, compared the Chinese regime’s systemic abuse of the minorities to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
Signatories include Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Conservative MP Kelly Block, New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan and Green Party MP Elizabeth May.
“Some may argue that sports and politics should not mix. We would respond that when genocide is happening, it is no longer a matter of politics, but of human rights and crimes against humanity. We cannot accept the current status quo,” the letter reads.
“We want to ensure that the medals they win in 2022 are not tainted by what will no doubt go down in history, like the 1936 Berlin Games, as The Games of Shame.”
Last week, Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said that Canada will not boycott the games, adding that taking part will allow for more discussions on human rights in China.
“The choices are to pull out, to barricade ourselves, to divide, to further polarize and say out of protest we’re not going to go, or to engage and be part of a conversation, to amplify voices, to speak our mind on things that are important to us and to participate in the Games,” Shoemaker said.
Nazi Germany used to the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a propaganda weapon against its critics. Despite widespread persecution of Jews and other minorities in Germany at the time, no countries boycotted.
Human rights groups say the Chinese regime is using the 2022 Winter Olympics to distract the wilder world from its treatment of minorities and create positive press coverage.
Since 2017, China has interned over 1 million people of the Uyghurs ethnicity, or nearly 10% of the entire population. While China claims these internment camps are for work and combating extremism, man sources say China is actively committing ethnic cleansing.
Last week the BBC reported the Uyghur women in these camps were subject to mass rape and sexual abuse. Another recent report found that over 570,000 Uyghurs are forced to work in China’s annual cotton harvest.
A coalition of 180 human rights groups from around the world recently called for a boycott of the 2022 Olympics, calling China’s treatment of minorities a genocide.
The Trudeau government has yet to label China’s atrocities as a genocide. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “acknowledged” the US government’s decision to do so.
