Canada passes anti-organ trafficking bill and pro-Tibet motion

Lawmakers on Wednesday passed legislation that would prevent foreign nationals from entering Canada if they were involved in organ trafficking — an allegation points to China UN experts passed a motion in 2021 urging Beijing to grant Tibet more autonomy.

The measures, taken as the House of Commons wraps up its final day of sitting for the year, echo the Canadian government’s recent tougher line on China.Last month, the government called China an “increasingly disruptive” force Indo-Pacific strategy.

Former Liberal Attorney General Owen Kotler praised the passage of S-223, saying “the heinous practice of organ harvesting targets the most vulnerable, including Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners in China.” Ten years ago, Mr. Kotler A private MP bill to combat organ trafficking was introduced first.

S-223, also known as the Trafficking in Human Organs Act, has already passed the Senate, with Senator Salma Ataullahjan supporting the bill. It prohibits Canadians from traveling abroad to receive an organ transplant without the informed consent of a donor or authorized consenting person. That would make it illegal for Canadians to play any role in unauthorized organ transplants — punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The passage of S-223 and the motion on Tibet was welcomed in the Commons gallery by more than 100 visitors, including Uyghur and Tibetan Canadians and followers of Falun Gong, a spiritual group persecuted by Beijing. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis led the Commons to pass the bill, backed by Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi.

The group later marched outside the Chinese embassy in Ottawa to protest.

In 2021, UN human rights experts issued what they called an “extreme warning” that China’s forced organ harvesting “appears to target specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities in detention.” Twelve UN-appointed experts, including the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Siobhan Mullally said, “According to the allegations received, the most common organs reported to be removed from prisoners were hearts, kidneys, livers, corneas and fewer organs. Usually part of the liver.”

The Chinese government later denied that any involuntary organ harvesting took place in its country, calling the UN experts’ allegations an “anti-China lie” by “actors” who “mongered and spread rumours”.

Mohammad Tohti, Executive Director The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project was one of the projects in the House of Commons gallery on Wednesday. “China has been commercializing human organs to make money from them,” he said. “Uyghurs and other groups have become the main source of human organ supply in China.”

Separately, members of Congress voted to approve a report calling on China to allow Tibet to control its own affairs.

The motion passed was to assent to a report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs urging the Tibetan government-in-exile to engage in dialogue with the People’s Republic of China “with a view to enabling Tibet to be under the Chinese constitution.”

China invaded and annexed Tibet more than 70 years ago. 2019 marks the 60th anniversary of Tibet’s failed resistance to Chinese rule.

The Tibet initiative is in line with the nonviolent “middle way” approach of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, who has taken refuge in India.

The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Mr. Genuis of the Conservative Party said Canadian MPs were sending a message to China’s rulers.

“Many lawmakers have shown a willingness to confront the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “Wednesday, by supporting a middle way and criminalizing organ harvesting and trafficking, and before that, by recognizing the Uyghur genocide and calling for action against foreign interference.” A stronger response.”

“These votes today bring hope to all victims of Chinese Communist brutality.”

Canada’s parliament voted last year to declare China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities a genocide.

The Liberals’ Mr Zubery is pushing a motion through the House of Commons urging Ottawa to make room for 10,000 Uyghurs and members of other Turkic ethnic groups who have fled China and are living in third countries such as Turkey in terms of refugee intake.

Human rights groups and media reports say the Chinese government has severely violated the human rights of the region’s mostly Muslim Uighur population, as well as other minorities. Critics in China say forced labor and forced relocation to work in other provinces is the latest stage in a government-led effort to exert control over Xinjiang. Beijing says the region is infected with extremism.

Until recently Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, visited Xinjiang this year and her office reported in late August that China had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uighur Muslims in the region. may constitute a crime against humanity.

Mr Kotler noted that the anti-organ-trafficking bill was also supported by former Secretary of State and Congressman David Kilgour, who “sadly did not live to see it passed.” passed away sometime.