URAP Statement: 2022 in Review

Dear friends,

As 2022 is rapidly approaching its end, it is time to reflect on the passing year, our achievements as an organization, as well as what we hope 2023 will bring for us and our community.

This year, URAP was a key reference point among Canadian politicians, media and the public on Uyghur-related issues and China in general. URAP’s contributions on China-related topics led to a shift in the public discourse in Ottawa and created more awareness on the ongoing Uyghur genocide, Chinese state-led interference and intimidation campaigns, Uyghur forced slave labour, and CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and university endowment funds’ troublesome investments in companies supporting the Uyghur genocide, for which URAP gave testimony in Canadian parliament this year before CACN (Special Canada-China Committee).

URAP cooperated with IPVM this year to uncover the RCMP’s malpractice in subcontracting its surveillance technology to the CCP-affiliated Hytera. URAP’s efforts to bring attention to this issue among Canadians led to a public pressure campaign that ended in the RCMP cancelling the contract.

Along with other NGOs, URAP made a statement calling upon Dahua employees to resign, and partnered organizations to terminate their business relationship with it, leading to reports in Canadian media and further conversations with several of the executives rethinking their association.

In part due to URAP’s efforts, the Canadian public became even more aware of Chinese state-led interference in the electoral system this year, undermining Canada’s democratic values. URAP raised alarms about the Chinese campaign of intimidation and harassment of the Uyghur community and other activists in Canada. URAP’s research advisor Conor Healy, who broke the story, was the principal investigator of this story.

URAP also initiated a new campaign, the Clean Universities initiative, and brought attention and awareness to McGill University’s complicity in the Uyghur genocide through their investments, empowering students to take further action over the next year and lead their school to divest.

URAP made headway in a number of legal initiatives this year. URAP filed a complaint with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) this year demanding an investigation of 14 Canadian companies from the garment and mining sectors profiting from Uyghur forced labour in China. In the CORE’s first response to an application since their office’s inception, they deemed our complaint admissible and 13 of those companies will be investigated shortly.

In cooperation with the office of Larochelle Avocats, URAP filed a motion in the Federal Court of Canada to have Canada declared to be in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by failing to take necessary measures to prevent the ongoing Uyghur genocide. This year, the first court hearing was held.

URAP’s Legal Advisor, Sarah Teich, published a report this summer, “Justice for Uyghurs,” an extensive review of legal avenues to confront the Uyghur genocide. This report provides a legal pathway to guide URAP and other Uyghur groups’ actions over the coming year(s).

URAP guided many parliamentary discussions in Ottawa this year, collaborating with parliamentarians and advising them on the implementation of legislation. We witnessed and celebrated the adoption of bill S-223, which will address the egregious crimes of human organ harvesting committed by the PRC. URAP collaborated with other groups to support Bill S-237 to amend Canada’s criminal code and establish a federal registry for individuals and entities that seek to influence Canadian democratic processes and policies on behalf of foreign regimes. On Uyghur forced labour, we witnessed the progression of Bill S-211, which although we find incomplete, is a step in the right direction. We are making our voice heard with parliamentarians and among other organizations on the following steps, and we expect big things in 2023 with regards to forced labour legislation.

This year, the private member’s motion M-62 was tabled by MP Sameer Zuberi, a co-chair of the Uyghur Friendship Parliamentary Group, calling upon the government to resettle 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking refugees into Canada. URAP mobilized the Uyghur-Canadian community and its friends to join in watching the first hour of parliamentary debate, followed by a reception at which we presented gifts to members of parliament for their open support of our community. We look forward to the motion’s vote in early 2023. Once adopted, it will have a historic significance for the exiled Uyghur community living in fear of deportation to China from unsafe third-party states.

This year, we witnessed a shift in tone among Canadian politicians with regards to China. With the government’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy out; and the open recognition of Chinese interference in the House of Commons, the RCMP, CPP, and other government or government-adjacent bodies, even PM Trudeau has hardened his stance. When Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu was greeted by demonstrators, organized by URAP, during his visit to the University of Ottawa, university management’s decision to expel media from the conference room generated comments from across the political spectrum in Ottawa, with Trudeau and all federal party leaders condemning the acceptance of the Chinese Embassy’s demands. The uOttawa leadership was forced to issue an apology.

As we look back at the past year, full of historic achievements and personal successes, we may take an opportunity to celebrate how far we have come as an organization, and as a community. At the same time, we look toward the future; there is still a long way to go.

We hope 2023 will bring many more successes, and we thank our community, advisors, and friends for your continued support.

Happy new year to all!