(Ottawa) The Trudeau government has not yet confirmed that it will send a diplomatic delegation to Qatar to encourage the Canadian men’s soccer team, but everything seems to indicate that we will be there. A few days before the opening of this major sporting event, the Bloc Québécois is calling for a boycott to which the NDP is adding its voice.
Bloc member Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe does not conceive of Canada sending a delegation to the small emirate given the fact that human rights, in particular those of members of the LGTBQ + community, are flouted there.
“It’s pretty obvious, in my opinion,” he says in an interview.
“We are talking about a country where a homosexual person is liable to seven years in prison for being homosexual, where foreign workers have died by the thousands building stadiums in appalling conditions,” he explains.
The member therefore urges the government to opt for the empty chair, as it did for the Beijing Olympics last February as a protest against the genocide that is being perpetrated against the Uyghurs by the Chinese regime.
But in doing so, Canada was following in the footsteps of several countries, including the United States. Now, this time, there is no such movement. “It’s definitely different; we were talking about a genocide, and China, on the geopolitical chessboard, is more important than Qatar,” he argues.
His NDP colleague Heather McPherson is also on the boycott team.
“The government must speak out clearly against the horrific human rights abuses in Qatar, including the outrageous exploitation of migrant workers in the construction of the World Cup, and back that up with a diplomatic boycott,” he said. she said in a press release.
Plans are slow to be announced
As the first whistle approaches, the office of the Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, continues to say that the decision on the presence of the latter has not yet been taken. “The plans will be unveiled in due course,” it was maintained on Wednesday.
According to comments made by the Minister at the end of September, however, the stakes seem to have already been cast. “Normally, as the team is qualified, and in addition, we are the host country for the next World Cup with the United States and Mexico, we will certainly have a presence,” she explained.
Bar the road to certain countries
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe regrets that Canadian footballers, who have earned a place at the World Cup for the first time since 1986, are “trapped talking about human rights in a country they may not have never heard of it “.
In the longer term, we must prevent countries that violate human rights from being those that organize major sporting events, he pleads, proposing that the movement take root in national federations.
“When they decide to entrust the organization to a country, it is absolutely necessary that the first criterion be that of human rights. You set up a committee, and you rely on the UN Declaration,” suggests the deputy.
The Qatar World Cup is held from November 20 to December 18.