Failing to hear it from Ottawa, a group of lawyers turns to the Federal Court of Canada to recognize that China is currently committing genocide against the Uyghurs.
The application for judicial review was filed Thursday, on the eve of the opening of the Beijing Olympics. It is led by Larochelle Avocats, on behalf of the Uyghur Rights Defense Project.
“We think it’s quite ripe for discussion. It is no coincidence that it is tabled at this time,” said the Duty one of the lawyers in the file, Sébastien Chartrand. “We can’t look at the Games the same way, and I don’t think we shouldn’t either,” he also said.
In Ottawa, a House of Commons subcommittee concluded in the fall of 2020 that the treatment of Uighurs constituted genocide. Canadian elected officials also accused China of perpetrating genocide against its Muslim minorities in February 2021. The unprecedented gesture, however, was made without the support of the government, since Justin Trudeau and all his ministers abstained from participating. to vote.
In context, “in light of Canada’s failures, we call for the intervention of the court, now more than ever, to give a voice to the Uyghur people here and elsewhere by finally naming the situation they face: a genocide”, is it written in the court document, written in English.
In short: “what is asked of the court, [c’est] to say the right. We want the court to say specifically that it is a genocide, since the Canadian government refuses to do so. “, summed up Me Chartrand. “We want the court to say that it entails obligations for Canada, in this case, under the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide [que le pays a ratifiée en 1952]. »
In violation of its international obligations
According to the Uyghur Rights Defense Project (URAP, Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project in English), Canada is not only violating its international obligations, it is also contributing to the commission of crimes against the Uyghurs by failing to act to stop the genocide.
By refusing to qualify the crimes committed against the Uyghur population as genocide, Canada “tacitly accepts these crimes, which facilitates their execution”, it is written in the application for judicial review.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide also binds states to use “all measures in their power” to prevent genocide, the document recalls. Indeed, Canada contravenes it by not denouncing the crimes committed in the context of genocide, in particular the establishment of a network of concentration camps and the mass sterilization campaigns of the Uyghurs, notes the URAP.
About 2,000 Uyghurs live in Canada. “The efforts of the People’s Republic of China to destroy this group have caused great trauma and post-traumatic shock syndrome” among several members of this community, the court document reads. These traumas are “exacerbated by the campaigns of harassment and intimidation carried out by the Chinese authorities on Canadian territory”, it is also written. In the opinion of URAP, this is proof of the “considerable efforts” made by China to silence those who denounce its actions.
The duty asked Friday for a reaction from the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly. He had not responded at the time of this writing.