{"id":479,"date":"2019-05-18T00:11:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T15:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/?p=479"},"modified":"2019-05-18T00:11:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T15:11:16","slug":"time-to-sanction-rights-abusing-chinese-officials-under-canadas-magnitsky-act-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yuzb.net\/en\/2019\/05\/18\/time-to-sanction-rights-abusing-chinese-officials-under-canadas-magnitsky-act-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to sanction rights-abusing Chinese officials under Canada’s Magnitsky Act, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Not a single Chinese official has been listed under the legislation since it was implemented 18 months ago<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Uyghur activists protest outside a court appearance for Huawei Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, at the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, on May 8, 2019.JASON REDMOND\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

May 15, 2019 4:48 PM EDT Filed under
https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/news\/time-to-sanction-rights-abusing-chinese-officials-under-canadas-magnitsky-act-experts-say?fbclid=IwAR0Jj33rTVmWUbh2ATOnu-6wSRLbZHUP_bNbJrwk39eLvJw0T-M27tyHbc8<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By some estimates, China has confined two million members of its Uyghur minority in camps where language and religion are systematically suppressed, prompting fears of a vast cultural genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing has also detained a Canadian diplomat and businessman in harsh conditions, and locked up numerous local dissidents<\/a> in the same type of \u201cblack jail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That seems like exactly the kind of behaviour contemplated by Canada\u2019s version of the Magnitsky Act<\/a>, a much-heralded law that imposes sanctions on corrupt and rights-abusing foreign officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet not a single Chinese official has been listed under the legislation since it was implemented 18 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some experts say it\u2019s time for that to change, despite the already toxic relationship between the two countries. They\u2019re urging the government to look at adding People\u2019s Republic functionaries to those of five other nations already targeted by the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the least we can do,\u201d said Errol Mendes, a University of Ottawa law professor who believes the Uyghurs\u2019 plight represents a \u201cmassive\u201d crime against humanity. \u201cIt will still no doubt attract even more repercussions from China, but it\u2019s a price we have to pay if we believe in where we stand since the Second World War \u2014 that we cannot let it happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Chinese leaders do not hold themselves accountable \u2026 at least we in Canada should be imposing visa bans, assets seizures and the like<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights Watch also recommended in a report<\/a> on the Uyghurs earlier this month that governments use Magnitsky laws and other targeted sanctions against Beijing\u2019s officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is not just the Muslim minority who are prompting thoughts of China and the legislation. In December, the Falun Gong\u2019s Canadian branch provided Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland with a list of 14 names of individuals it says masterminded persecution of that religious group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a situation for which Magnitsky was intended to be used,\u201d said Irwin Cotler, a leading, Montreal-based human-rights lawyer and former federal justice minister. \u201cIf Chinese leaders do not hold themselves accountable \u2026 at least we in Canada should be imposing visa bans, assets seizures and the like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Practitioners of Falun Gong gather in front of Belleville city hall on Friday July 29, 2016 in Belleville, Ont. Tim Miller\/Belleville Intelligencer\/Postmedia Network<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Magnitsky sanctions could deliver more than just a moral sting, experts say, given evidence<\/a> that many senior officials in the regime have likely transferred wealth to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam Austen, a spokesman for Freeland, said Canada has publicly and privately condemned mistreatment of the Uyghurs, and will continue to raise the human rights situation in China \u201cat every possible opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he declined to respond to questions about whether the government would actually consider wielding Magnitsky against Chinese officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Magnitsky Act was passed by the U.S. in 2012, designed initially to sanction Russian officials involved in the prison death of a lawyer investigating a sweeping tax fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada followed suit with its own law in October 2017, applying it to authorities in any country complicit in \u201cgross violations\u201d of human rights or corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation allows the government to freeze assets here belonging to the listed individuals, bar them from the country and prohibit Canadians from doing business with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catalogue of names<\/a> now includes 30 Russians, 19 Venezuelan officials, three from South Sudan, one leader in Myanmar and 17 Saudi Arabian citizens linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n