E-Paper
Canada lawmakers seek shifting of Winter Olympics from China over ‘Uighur genocide’
The 2022 Games will go down in history as ‘The Games of Shame’ just as the 1936 edition provided a propaganda platform to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, they warned in a letter.
Citing the alleged genocide of Uighurs in Xinjiang, more than a dozen Canadian lawmakers have written to the International Olympic Committee, asking to it move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from Beijing to another country. Otherwise, the letter stated, the 2022 Games will go down in history as ‘The Games of Shame’ just as the 1936 edition provided a propaganda platform to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
The letter was signed by MPs across party, including those from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party, as well as the opposition Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois, New Democratic Party and the Green Party.
The letter referenced the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights statement released in October last year, which accused China of committing “genocide” against it Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
“We have a unique opportunity to come together with all the world’s humanitarians and democrats and take action by refusing to participate in this global sports festival, on the grounds that doing so would amount to taking part in a sinister, self-aggrandising spectacle staged for the benefit of a regime that is perpetrating the worst possible crimes against humanity against its own people,” the letter stressed.
Unlike previous calls for boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the MPs wanted them to continue but at another venue selected by the IOC. “We are not asking our athletes to give up their Olympic dream, because we know full well how much effort will have gone into pursuing it.
However, we believe that there is still time to demand that the International Olympic Committee move the Games to another country if the Chinese government continues its genocidal campaign,” they said.
It also added that some may argue that sports and politics do not mix, but in this instance, “We would respond that when genocide is happening, it is no longer a matter of politics, but of human rights and crimes against humanity. We cannot accept the current status quo.”
All five of Canada’s main federal parties were represented among the signatories to the letter, which was started by Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe.
