MPs demand relocation of 2022 Olympics due to China’s abuse of Uighurs

More than a dozen federal lawmakers from all parties are calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved outside China, citing a "genocidal campaign" by its government against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.

An open letter signed by 13 MPs, a half-dozen Quebec politicians and others warns that participating in the Beijing Olympics would serve to validate a regime they say is perpetuating crimes against humanity within its own borders.

The letter demands that the International Olympic Committee relocate the global competition to avoid having athletes "tainted" by an event lawmakers say would be comparable to the 1936 Berlin games under the Nazi regime.

A Canadian parliamentary subcommittee concluded in an October report that China's treatment of Uighurs amounts to genocide, a designation the country rejected as baseless.

China has been accused of using forced birth control to limit Uighur births and detention camps to indoctrinate the mostly-Muslim minority into mainstream Chinese society, which Beijing denies.

The letter, whose signatories include gold medalist Jean-Luc Brassard and former Liberal cabinet minister Irwin Cotler, follows a call from some 180 human rights groups to boycott the Beijing games, slated to kick off on Feb. 4, 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2021.