Rex Murphy: Trudeau has made much of his sensitivity on cultural and human rights issues — it’s part of the Liberal code. Also the prime minister, having shown no hesitation in pronouncing on the word “genocide” in the Canadian context, the country’s historical record with Aboriginal peoples, was facing some challenge as to why he would not pronounce on a present-day persecution — some say involving a million members of a minority — by a Communist-ruled country.
The backbencher vote gave some cover to the Liberals’ — shall we call it ambiguity — on a pure human rights issue. The backbencher vote also gave them cover for the next election campaign, whenever it comes. The Liberals will be free to claim, and they will, that “We allowed the vote, and most of us said Yes it was a genocide, and we told China so.”
But then there’s this other matter. The cabinet and Mr. Trudeau, even on Zoom, didn’t show up for the vote at all. I find this quite strange. This was a rare vote on a most significant issue. I’d go so far as to say it’s the government’s most significant international moment to date. It wasn’t some UN speech on general matters, or marking some international “day.” Real people in their hundreds of thousands are in camps enduring all kinds of terrible treatment at this very moment, and the Canadian government was stating what it thinks of the matter.
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