Juno News - Trudeau refuses to stand up to China

Justin Trudeau has ordered the Liberal cabinet to abstain from voting on a motion condemning China for genocide against its Uyghur Muslim population in the western part of China. What does that mean for China? And why is this a problem?

00:00:00.000 This one's got to be one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's most controversial foreign policy

00:00:09.860 decisions to date, ordering the Liberal cabinet to abstain from voting on a motion to condemn

00:00:16.820 China for genocide against its Uyghur Muslim population. Now this is an issue that's been

00:00:22.760 reported in great length, in great detail in a number of major publications. Places like the

00:00:27.580 New York Times have done very robust features on what's going on with the Uyghur Muslim population

00:00:32.520 in the western part of China. Many human rights activists, prominent human rights organizations

00:00:37.880 across the world have said this is a genocide, they have condemned it. A Canadian House of

00:00:43.700 Commons committee has actually looked at the issue and said yes, what we've got going on here is

00:00:48.260 genocide and yet Justin Trudeau, he's not willing to speak out against it or even just let his cabinet

00:00:54.340 vote on this motion one way or another. I think he's offending a whole lot of people here. He's

00:01:00.780 offending the Muslim population, he's offending human rights activists. I think this is offensive

00:01:05.640 to the two Michaels who are currently being abused by China, unfairly detained there, to Chinese

00:01:12.220 dissidents who are living in Canada, to anybody who's saying we are getting tired of all of the

00:01:17.040 things that China is doing and getting away with. What's it going to take for Justin Trudeau to put

00:01:22.760 his foot down? I understand there are some delicacies with the two Michaels issue, but does that mean

00:01:27.720 you just let China get away with absolutely everything? I don't think so. A lot of people

00:01:33.840 are going to see this as, I think, new terrain, as sort of crossing into a new level here, just

00:01:39.320 completely unwilling to condemn China. I know this is a conservative motion, so politically speaking

00:01:45.700 it's sort of kind of a trap here to say, well, will the liberals say this or not? But it's also

00:01:50.100 a very easy thing to say. It's one of those traps that you should kind of be happy to fall into

00:01:55.520 because who would have a problem with condemning China for what they're doing with the Uyghur 1.00

00:02:00.020 population here? It should be a no-brainer, but Justin Trudeau is unwilling to do it, and that is a

00:02:06.560 major problem. It makes one wonder, is he ever going to be willing to do the right thing when it comes to

00:02:11.380 the China file? I mean, people have been calling for him to ban Huawei for the longest time, and it

00:02:16.120 doesn't seem like they want to do it. All of our allies, all of the experts, it seems like it's a

00:02:20.680 decision that should be made, and yet he can't make the right call on that decision. So really upping

00:02:26.340 the ante in just how worrisome it is in Justin Trudeau's inability to really make firm statements

00:02:32.680 against China when it's so crystal clear. Everyone knows that this is something that needs to be said.

00:02:38.800 Now, China does not like to be criticized at all, but too bad. They've basically said,

00:02:44.740 never say anything critical of us ever. And the correct response to that is not to say,

00:02:50.120 oh, okay, we will oblige you. The correct response is for us to put our principles first and to just

00:02:55.260 basically condemn them when it's warranted. And right now, it's warranted.

Juno News - February 23, 2021

Trudeau refuses to stand up to China

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