Members of Parliament have unanimously called on Ottawa to start a refugee program to resettle 10,000 Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China.
“This is an important moment today where we are standing together as one,” Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi told reporters on Parliament Hill.
“We have hard work to do ahead of us. We will do this work.”
The Montreal MP proposed a motion last June calling on the government to develop a plan within 100 days to resettle 10,000 Uyghur people and other Muslims of Turkic origin to Canada.
That gives Ottawa until May 12 to come up with the outline of a program that the motion says should start in 2024 and meet its target within two years.
The idea is to resettle people who are living in countries such as Turkey rather than bringing them directly from China, with Zuberi arguing that there is no safe way to do the latter.
MPs passed the motion unanimously Wednesday in the Commons. It earned 322 votes, including that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
After passing the motion, MPs from different parties shook hands and hugged. Zuberi pumped his fist in the air as dozens of people wearing traditional Uyghur clothing clapped, with some cheering, “Thank you, Canada” from the public galleries. read more