{"id":34248,"date":"2025-04-11T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinesepress.com\/?p=34248"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:29:58","slug":"why-did-canada-try-to-take-in-uygurs-deported-from-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepress.com\/pre\/archives\/34248","title":{"rendered":"Why did Canada try to take in Uygurs deported from Thailand?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Aidan Jonah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why was Canada trying to take Uygurs who were deported from Thailand to China? A failed anti-Chinese government policy, triggering a later cost of nearly $1 million CAD, is the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British newspaper The Guardian reported that<\/a> Canada and the US had offered to take in all 48 Uygurs held in Thailand, before 40 were deported back to China at the beginning of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While readers would often associate the United States with shenanigans around China and its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Canada has made its own noise on this front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada itself was the first country whose parliament declared that China\u2019s treatment of Uygurs in the XUAR was a \u201cgenocide\u201d, back in 2021. Allowed to drive the lead-up to this vote<\/a>, was a CIA-funded Uygur separatist organization, Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP). URAP went on to accuse<\/a> a Canadian Senator who opposed a follow-up \u2018genocide\u2019 motion in Canada\u2019s Senate of \u201cacting as a spokesperson for China rather than for Canada\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than face any criticism for such comments towards a Canadian Senator, URAP was given attention by the Canadian government, as a 2023 memorandum stated that<\/a> for URAP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuccesses include: the building of a Uyghur parliamentary friendship group; Canada\u2019s recent commitment to welcome 10,000 Uyghur refugees; and the hearing conducted by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights in 2020 and the subsequent parliamentary motion recognizing the Uyghur genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This section of the memorandum was referring to a non-binding motion in Canada\u2019s parliament, passed unanimously in February 2023, which demanded that Canada should<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201curgently leverage Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada\u2019s Refugee and Humanitarian Program to expedite the entry of 10,000 Uyghurs \u2026 over two years starting in 2024 into Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with much bravado, with the support of then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the efforts to bring in 10k Uygur \u2018refugees\u2019 began in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s one big problem, the original 2022 motion (passed in 2023) was premised on the idea that<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201ca genocide is currently being carried out by the People’s Republic of China against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a problem, because if you want to find a large of refugees, it usually follows unpopular crackdown or a \u2018genocide\u2019. As this author has detailed<\/a> for this outlet, there has not been such a situation in China\u2019s XUAR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And without an actual genocide, or even just a cultural genocide, should it be any surprise that Canada has struggled mightily to match its Uygur \u201crefugee\u201d goal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly $1 million CAD, to help only a few Uygur \u201crefugees\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada only bringing in its first Uygur \u201crefugee<\/a>\u201d in December 2024<\/a>, when the stated aim was 10,000, would be a major embarrassment on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the embarrassment was higher than most would realize, because before the first \u201crefugee\u201d entered Canada, The Canada Files discovered a contribution<\/a> indicating that the CIA-funded URAP had received nearly $1 million CAD to assist Uygur \u2018refugees\u2019 who\u2019d come to Canada. After this story broke, Canada\u2019s immigration department tried to hide the contribution<\/a> from the public and URAP has never answered questions around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this point \u2013 November 2024 – zero Uygur \u201crefugees\u201d had been brought to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s immigration department further escalated in January 2025, by refusing to provide<\/a> the final copy of the contribution agreement signed between them and URAP, for the near $1 million CAD contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URAP\u2019s Executive Director, Mehmet Tohti, has a questionable past around Uygur refugees. This author earlier explained that<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cURAP\u2019s Executive Director, Mehmet Tohti, has previously demanded that Canada allow in Guantanamo prisoner Anvar (Ali) Hassan, a then 34-year-old who \u201cfled China to live and train in a camp in Afghanistan in 2001\u201d and was \u2018later caught in the hills of Pakistan\u2019, who \u2018admitted to military training in Afghanistan\u2019 with the motivation of fighting the \u2018oppressive Chinese government\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tohti was also<\/a> a co-founder of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), another CIA-funded organization, serving as Vice-President twice, and currently is an elected<\/a> Director of the Legal Committee for WUC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this day, what URAP has done with the nearly $1 million CAD, given only a few \u201crefugees\u201d have come to Canada, is still an open question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as such, it is no wonder that Canada would be so interested in getting some of the 48 Uygurs in detention in Thailand, almost all now deported back to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given how determined Canada is to boost URAP and other anti-China separatists \u2013 by funding them<\/a>, showing them off at a conference<\/a> and helping them network with each other, and defending them when sanctioned by China<\/a> – Canada would want to get more Uygur \u201crefugees\u201d into the country to show \u201cprogress\u201d in their \u2018refugee saving\u2019 program, while also easing the pressure on URAP to answer questions on what the money they\u2019ve been given is being spent on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are these Canadian shenanigans against China in the ordinary citizen\u2019s interest? Of course not, but the imperial machine has its mind made up to go after China, and the citizen\u2019s interest is of little concern to Canada\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: This article was originally published<\/a> in CovertAction Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aidan Jonah<\/em><\/strong> is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, an independent news outlet covering Canadian foreign policy with a strong focus on Canada-China relations. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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