Trudeau government passes decision on participation in Beijing Games to Canada's Olympic Committee
'We've got two Canadians who are being held as hostages. We've got China dismantling Hong Kong ... I just don't see how we can go there'
OTTAWA – Despite the nearly 800-day arbitrary detention of two Canadians and a “genocide” of Uyghur Muslims in China, the Trudeau government is allowing the Canadian Olympic Committee to make the decision alone on participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
The Beijing Olympics are scheduled to hold their opening ceremonies one year from Thursday, on Feb. 4, 2022, but there have been widespread calls for countries to boycott the games from human rights groups and activists in Hong Kong.
“The decision on whether or not to participate in Olympic and Paralympic games lies with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees as they operate independently of the government,” said Camille Gagné-Raynauld, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, who was unavailable for an interview.
“We will continue to work alongside the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees and all sport organizations to support Canadian athletes leading up to all future Games,” she said.
The Canadian Olympic Committee is a volunteer board that meets four times a year, according to the organizations’ website. A spokesperson for the committee said they intend to address calls for a boycott on Thursday.
Two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, have been held in detention since December 2018, following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. Spavor, for the first time in months, received a consular visit from Canada’s ambassador on Wednesday.
The two men have had limited consular access and have been held in prison, while Meng has been under house arrest in Vancouver, free to move around. If they remain in detention until the games, they will have spent more than three years in custody.
The Chinese Communist Party has also been accused by multiple governments and human rights groups of imprisoning Uyghur people across the Xinjiang region of the country. What the government has called “re-education” centres appear to be an effort to eradicate the culture and faith traditions of Uyghur people and have been coupled with mass surveillance.
A House of Commons committee on international issues and human rights concluded last fall, “that the actions of the Chinese Communist Party constitute genocide as laid out in the Genocide Convention.”
The genocide convention is a UN document that provides a legal definition of genocide. It is ratified by 152 countries around the world and calls for the prevention and punishment of genocide.
Conservative Foreign Affairs critic Michael Chong said a boycott of the Olympics maybe considered.
We're not talking about it because the government desperately doesn't want to talk about it
“Conservatives are deeply concerned about the genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. We strongly protest the Liberal government to work with Canada’s allies to take action,” he said in an email.
“All options should be on the table, especially a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 as part of a wider plan to work with our allies to reset relations with China.”
Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney said it is clear the government is avoiding the issue.
“We’re not talking about it because the government desperately doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Mulroney said there is so much evidence coming out of China of the horrendous treatment of the Ugyhur people, as well as a crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and the fate of the two Michaels, that it should be obvious Canada can’t attend the games.
“We’ve got two Canadians who are being held as hostages. We’ve got China dismantling Hong Kong, and continuing its repression into Tibet, so I just don’t see how we can go there.”
Mulroney said hopefully Canada is working quietly to build a coalition with other like-minded countries, so any boycott will be part of a group of countries.
“It’s worth doing, alone, but it’s much better and smarter to do it with others and to find others, and that used to be the kind of thing that Canada was good at building a consensus on a practical way forward.”
Canada’s last Olympic boycott came in 1980, when the games were held in Moscow. Canada along with the United States and many other nations boycotted the games in response to the then Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
At the time, Canada’s external affairs minister Liberal Mark MacGuigan stood in the House of Commons and announced the Pierre Trudeau government’s intention to boycott the games.
“We have decided that the circumstances leave us no choice, but to urge the Canadian Olympic Association to inform the organizing committee for the 1980 olympics that Canadian athletes will not be participating in the games.”
MacGuigan’s decision came not long after the Liberals took power and the Conservatives under Joe Clark had similar plans to boycott the games.
Mulroney said the Chinese communist party will use the games to distract from their human rights record and crackdowns on democracy.
“We get dazzled by these things, and they’re going to attempt to do that in 2022 in Beijing. But the reality is we’ve acquired just too much evidence of what’s happening,” he said.
He said if Western countries see no change in China’s action and still attend the games it sends the wrong message to the ruling communist party.
“There’s also a sense, particularly for the party that they’re securing the compliance of the world. And that’s really really dangerous,” he said. “We submitted to it in 2008, look where we are now. Why allow that to happen again?”
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