HANSARD: What happened to caregivers' PR on arrival promised by the government?
Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition adding 827 names to the thousands of signatures that have already been added to a petition I tabled previously. The petition is about the situation in Hong Kong, and more particularly with respect to the fact that Hong Kong's basic law has completely been eroded and that the national security law imposed by China and adopted in Hong Kong has gotten rid of even the most basic of rights, including freedom of the press.
On August 12, Hong Kong's top court upheld the conviction of seven of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists, including 82-year-old Martin Lee and 76-year-old Jimmy Lai, who was the owner of Apple Daily. That publication has now been shut down and Lai is in jail. In fact, he is actually in court trying to defend himself.
The offences of these individuals are that they participated in a peaceful demonstration on August 18, 2019. The group of 47, which includes legislators, were found guilty on May 30, in the exercise of their democratic rights for participating in election primaries. These pro-democracy activists have since been sentenced. Some of them face as much as 10 years in prison for their pro-democracy activities.
Given the extraterritorial reach of the national security law in article 23, there is ongoing fear of surveillance among the Hong Kong diaspora. In light of the recent spying charges laid against staff at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the U.K., Hong Kongers want to be assured this is not happening in Canada.
Therefore petitioners are calling on the Canadian government to call on Hong Kong and the PRC to release Jimmy Lai and the group of 47 and others, whose only crime was to exercise their rights and freedoms as prescribed by the UN human rights declaration; stop according any special rights or diplomatic status to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office; and proactively apply sanctions, under the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Officials Act, against Chinese and Hong Kong officials.
