Ottawa, June 23, 2020 – Thirteen Canadian Senators, led by Senator Thanh Hai Ngo and Senator Leo Housakos, write an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling on the government of Canada to strongly consider imposing Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for human rights violations in Tibet.
The letter written in light of the ongoing protest in Hong Kong calls out the government to consider China’s growing harassment and intimidation of Chinese-Canadians (and Tibetan-Canadians) on Canadian soil. A recent report by Amnesty International Canada and the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China highlights the case of a prominent Tibetan-Canadian student leader in Toronto who faced aggressive online abuse, death threats, phone harassment, and a petition signed by over 10,000 students, possibly linked to the Chinese consulate, due to her Tibet-related advocacy work.
In the same year (2019), a Tibetan organization suspected to be a Chinese government front organization was found to be propagating misinformation as a way to further Chinese interests and undermine support for Tibet in Canadian society. The group forged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature on a letter targeted to mislead Canadians about situations in Tibet. Canada Tibet Committee lead the campaign of exposing the forgery with the help of Canadian Member of Parliament Arif Virani.
The PRC’s return to totalitarian ideology in recent years has led to even more control over Tibetans with a sharp increase in the arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture of human rights defenders and activists calling for the right to sustainable development, environmental protection, land rights, language freedom, and cultural rights in Tibet. As a measure of last, at least 164 Tibetans have committed a self-immolation-the act of setting yourself on fire-to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Three CCP officials working in Tibet Autonomous Regions have been included in the list.
By Sherap Therchin
Executive Director