Recently-elected Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul has issued a call for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be relocated from Beijing, China due to the ongoing genocide against the country’s Uyghur minority.
In a Tuesday morning tweet, Paul also asked Canada to consider bidding itself as an alternative location for the international event citing past experience with hosting the Olympic games.
“If an ongoing genocide is not reason enough to relocate a sporting event, then my question is, what is?” asked Paul during a press conference.
“China has proven itself to be incredibly resistant to liberalization of human rights and fundamental freedoms. here is no reason to credibly believe that the celebration of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, alongside a genocide, will produce any such results.”
Paul is not the only Canadian politician who has issued calls for the Olympics to be relocated or for Canada not to participate.
Over a dozen federal MPs from every party issued an open letter calling for the games to be moved due to an ongoing “genocidal campaign” being committed by the Chinese Communist Party.
“Mass rapes and numerous acts of torture are being committed in these camps. Women are being forcibly sterilized, adults and children are being kidnapped, and surveillance camera systems are being combined with artificial intelligence software to track Uighurs around the globe,” wrote the letter.
“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.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been facing growing pressure to listen to the international community and Uyghur rights advocates and declare China’s actions in the Xinjiang region a genocide.
Last week, Trudeau stopped short of labelling the crisis a genocide but did say that he “acknowledged” the US government’s recent decision to do so.
“We have been speaking up directly to China’s leadership for many years now on our concern of women and ethnic minorities in Western China and throughout China. We will continue to stand up for human rights everywhere around the world. We will continue to call for better transparency and understanding what’s happened,” said Trudeau.
“We acknowledge that the US has made the determination that these acts constitute a genocide. We will continue our work with them and with other allies to move forward and protect these people.”
The departure by the US government was made in January prior to the departure of former US president Donald Trump.
