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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 184

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 184 - Apr/25/23
Mr. Garnett Genuis (Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, CPC)
  • Apr/25/23 10:11:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the next petition I am tabling deals with the situation in Hong Kong and the concerns about free and fair trials, judicial independence and a lack of rule of law in Hong Kong. Those who have been involved in the democracy movement in China have been subject to politicized prosecution aimed at suppressing their legitimate democracy activity. Canada's immigration and refugee law seeks to render inadmissible Canadians who have been involved in criminal activity abroad. The petitioners note the need for exceptional treatment of those who are otherwise law-abiding and freedom-loving citizens but have been subject to arbitrary criminalization of their democracy activity. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to recognize the politicization of the judiciary in Hong Kong and its impacts on the legitimacy and validity of criminal convictions; to affirm its commitment to render all national security law charges and convictions irrelevant and invalid in relation to inadmissibility rules in Canadian immigration; to create a mechanism by which Hong Kong people with pro-democracy movement-related convictions may provide an explanation for such convictions and on the basis of which government officials could grant exemptions to Hong Kong people who would otherwise be deemed inadmissible on the basis of criminality; and to work with other like-minded democracies to waive criminal inadmissibility of Hong Kong people convicted for political purposes who do not otherwise have criminal records.
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