Ottawa - COVID-19 Press Conference
Wednesday, February 19 2020
Ottawa, Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery
International Support for Uyghurs visited Parliament hill to advocate for the release of the up to 3 million Uyghurs being detained in concentration camps in East Turkestan by the Chinese Communist Party.
A press conference was organized to release a written statement regarding the urgent need for the Canadian government to intervene in the safety and wellbeing of Uyghurs due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus.
Due to the already terrible conditions of the concentration camps, COVID-19 poses an additional hazard to the already weakened immune systems of the detainees. Further, Beijing has made it policy to show “absolutely no mercy” to Uyghurs, and the COVID-19 outbreak may lead to a catastrophe of an unforetold number of Uyghur victims due to willful neglect and lack of access to basic medical care.
International Support for Uyghurs was joined at the press conference by Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party) who urged CCP to focus on the extreme perils Uyghurs face in the camps.
May was joined by Garnett Genuis, Conservative MP for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, has also voiced strong concerns regarding the concentration camps and demanded Canada to issue a public address on the issue. Genuis has continuously shown support for Uyghurs in Parliament, most recently intervening in the case of Huseyin Celil. Dominic Barton, the Canadian Ambassador to China had incorrectly stated that Celil was not a Canadian citizen. Barton’s false claim was corrected by Genuis and by Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne in the House of Commons.
As Uyghur Canadians, we will continue to advocate for Uyghurs in East Turkestan to the best of our efforts. We will not stop until the concentration camps are dismantled. We urge all Canadians to speak up and hold the Canadian government accountable. To date we are unaware of any action taking by our Canadian government to address the unfolding Uyghur crisis during the COVID-19 outbreak. This must change.
Read about this press conference here:
https://ipolitics.ca/2020/02/19/advocates-say-coronavirus-spread-would-be-catastrophic-for-detainees...