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Prime Minister Mark Carney would not say when asked whether China’s treatment of the Uyghurs amounted to genocide – as the House of Commons declared several years ago – but acknowledged the Asian country was “rightly called out” for its conduct toward this minority in the past.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Quebec, Mr. Carney was asked whether he agreed with the [Canada’s] 2021 House of Commons motion on genocide.

He declined to say but noted “there are fundamental issues in terms of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in the past, and they’ve been rightly called out.”

Mr. Carney is still navigating the fallout from comments from new Liberal MP Michael Ma who last week cast doubt on reports of forced labour in China. Mr. Ma, who defected from the opposition Conservatives in December, has since apologized for his statements.

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Mr. Ma sparked a backlash last Thursday after he challenged the existence of forced labour in China during a meeting of the Commons industry committee, which is examining Mr. Carney’s deal to allow 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into Canada at a low tariff rate.

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Last week, Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, had told the Commons industry committee Thursday that electric vehicles (EV) are being built with Chinese aluminum products made by slave labourers in Xinjiang. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report also said major automakers including Tesla, BYD, GM, Toyota and Volkswagen are drawing aluminum from supply chains linked to Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang.

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Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, a region some call East Turkestan, have faced years of repression, forced internment and coerced labour under Beijing, according to rights groups. A 2022 report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said China has committed “serious human rights violations” there that may amount to “crimes against humanity.”