THE TRAVESTY OF POSTURING POLITICIANS

   The vote in Parliament Monday to condemn China for its alleged genocide against the country’s Muslim Uyghur minority was a travesty at every level. First, the motion put forward by the Conservative party was non-binding on the government and therefore its passage in the House of Commons is essentially meaningless.
   The vote in the House of Commons on the Uyghurs in China also represents a failure for the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who stayed away from the vote along with his entire cabinet, except for the sacrificial lamb offered to the opposition in the form of Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Marc Garneau.
   By declining to issue a whip and declaring the motion a free vote, the government sidestepped its responsibility to take a position on whether what has transpired in China actually constitutes a genocide against the Uyghurs. All one heard from Garneau were the usual platitudes that the government is reflecting on the situation.
   The Trudeau government’s contortions on the vote reflect the reality that its concern about human rights in China is more rhetorical than real. As I argued here recently, Canada’s actions speak louder than its words. Despite the government’s protestations about human rights abuses in China, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a Crown corporation which invests public monies, is invested in China to the tune of $56 billion or almost 12 per cent of its total portfolio, some in companies that have provable links to human rights abuses including against the Uyghurs.