Athletes or politicians? MPs want Canada to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics, but can’t agree on how

OTTAWA: The three official opposition parties are pressuring the liberal government to decrease Canada’s presence at the upcoming Beijing Olympics, while Ottawa talks behind the scenes with other countries about how to participate in the Winter Games hosted by an economic superpower with a lousy human rights record.

Bloc Québécois is taking the toughest line, denouncing Canada’s willingness to send athletes to the Games without guaranteed access for human rights monitors to China’s Xinjiang region, where the documented oppression of Uighur Muslims has been deemed “genocide.” “for the United States and Canada. House of Commons.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, the bloc’s leader, Yves-François Blanchet, lashed out at the notion of a “diplomatic” boycott, which would see Canada participate in the Games, but would refrain from sending government officials. to this winter’s star global event in the Chinese capital.

Blanchet said it “doesn’t make any sense” for a democracy like Canada not to take a firmer position, pointing to an effort by his party, which was brought down in the Commons this week, to call for the delay and possible relocation of the Olympics. until Beijing allows observers to enter Xinjiang.

“The Olympic Games are called ‘Olympic Games’, we are going to play,” Blanchet said in French, adding that he understands that the Games mean a lot to the athletes who dedicated their lives to their respective sports. “But it is not more important than the survival of a people, a nation, a culture,” he said.

Other opposition parties support calls for a diplomatic boycott of the Games. “I don’t want to see athletes suffer, so I think we should boycott diplomatically,” Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said Wednesday.

The new Democrats also want Canada to conduct a diplomatic boycott, although the party’s leader, Jagmeet Singh, said Wednesday that his main concern is the safety of athletes in an authoritarian country where two Canadians were recently jailed for more than three years in an act that Ottawa denounced as “hostage diplomacy.

However, the liberal government has indicated that it will not act alone, but is considering a diplomatic boycott together with allied countries such as the United States.

Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge said Wednesday those discussions are continuing and no decisions have been made.

At the same time, Heritage Canada spokesman Daniel Savoie postponed any decision on athlete participation to the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees, which have publicly rejected calls for a full boycott of the Games. But the statement left open the possibility of a diplomatic boycott.

“We are looking for a way for the two athletes to do all their hard work, while continuing to demonstrate our concerns with the human rights situation in China,” the statement said.

Neither the Canadian Olympic or Paralympic Committees responded to the Star’s requests for interviews on Wednesday.

Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden, who was Canada’s standard-bearer at the last Beijing Olympics in 2008, said Canada should not go beyond a diplomatic boycott because “our athletes are not tools of diplomacy,” arguing that their Participation in the Games can really draw attention to human rights violations in China.

“I do not think that being an athlete, caring for our athletes or cheering for our athletes is mutually exclusive from believing and caring about the Uighur genocide,” he said.