Canada’s parliament says China’s treatment of Uighurs is genocide | Al Jazeera

Canada’s parliament has passed a non-binding motion that says China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority constitutes genocide, heaping pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to do the same.

The motion, sponsored by the opposition Conservative Party, passed by a vote of 266-0 in the House of Commons on Monday, though Trudeau and nearly his entire cabinet abstained.

The measure was also amended just before the vote to call on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if the treatment continues.

“More than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are or have been in camps. The testimonies we’ve heard from witnesses and survivors [have] been horrifying,” Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole told reporters after the vote.

“There’s real suffering going on in China. There’s a genocide happening and Canadians, while we’re free traders and I’m very proud to be a free-market party, our values are not for sale,” he said, when asked about potential economic impacts of the motion.