He Said ‘Name Reality.’ Then He Refused to Say ‘Genocide.’

In January, Mark Carney stood on a stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos and told the world that Canada was done pretending. “The power of the less powerful begins with honesty,” he said. Canada would name reality. Canada would stop going along to get along.¹

On Tuesday, a reporter asked Carney whether he agreed with the 2021 House of Commons motion declaring China’s treatment of the Uyghurs a genocide. He would not say.

“There are fundamental issues in terms of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in the past, and they’ve been rightly called out,” Carney said. When pressed on whether a genocide is continuing, he offered: “There are serious issues that remain.”²

That is not naming reality. That is the diplomatic equivalent of looking at the floor.

The context makes it worse. Last Thursday, Liberal MP Michael Ma — who crossed the floor from the Conservatives in December — sat in a Commons industry committee hearing and challenged the existence of forced labour in China. The committee was examining Carney’s deal to allow 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into Canada at a reduced 6.1% tariff, down from the 100% surtax imposed in 2024.³

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa who has been sanctioned by China for her work with the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, told the committee that electric vehicles are being built with Chinese aluminum products made by slave labourers in Xinjiang. A 2024 Human Rights Watch report documented the risk of Uyghur forced labour in the aluminum supply chains of major automakers including Tesla, BYD, GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen.⁴

Ma’s response was to demand first-hand proof. “Have you witnessed forced labour in Shenzhen? Yes or no? So did you get that from hearsay?” he asked.

Canada-Hong Kong Link, a non-profit, said Ma’s demand for “first-hand” testimony — when China imposes strict access restrictions — “reflects an approach often used to undermine credible human rights evidence and avoid accountability.” Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, said Ma has either “not done his homework or completely ignored the fact of atrocity crimes.” McCuaig-Johnston later said Ma’s questioning — and its coverage in Chinese media — was weaponized against her. “The Chinese media have now presented the exchange with really vicious remarks about me and praise for Mr. Ma,” she wrote.⁵

Kuzzat Altay / Unsplash — The UN reported in 2022 that China committed ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang that may amount to ‘crimes against humanity.’ Canada has blocked just two shipments of forced-labour goods since 2021.

Ma apologized. Carney accepted. Then, on Monday night — four days after Ma questioned forced labour on camera — Carney attended a $1,775-per-ticket Liberal Party fundraiser co-hosted by Ma at a Markham golf club. The other co-hosts were Energy Minister Tim Hodgson and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. Carney blocked media access to the event — reversing the open-access policy introduced by Justin Trudeau after a cash-for-access scandal in 2016.⁶

Outside the venue, Hong Kong-born Conservative candidate Joe Tay — who is himself the target of a Hong Kong police bounty for allegedly violating China’s national security law — confronted the prime minister’s motorcade. “He was so, so fake, so muddy,” Tay said of Carney.

The record behind the rhetoric is damning. Since 2021, the Canadian government has blocked exactly two shipments of goods from China on the grounds that they were produced with forced labour. Two. The United States, by contrast, has blocked thousands over the same period.⁷

The Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise — created to crack down on abuses by Canadian corporations abroad, including forced labour — has had its top position vacant for months. Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong wrote to Carney demanding he clarify whether he believes Uyghur forced labour “has and is being used” in China. He also asked whether Carney raised human rights during his January visit to Beijing — the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2017.⁸

When asked directly whether he believes there is forced labour in China, Carney would not say yes. Instead, he acknowledged there are “higher risk” parts of China and that “there is evidence, and there’s existence, I should say, of child labour and forced labour around the world.”

Around the world. Not in China. Around the world.

Globe and Mail columnist Robyn Urback laid out the calculation precisely. Carney cannot throw Ma under the bus because doing so would mean cancelling the fundraiser Ma co-hosted. It would be noticed by Beijing, jeopardizing the new trade partnership. It would be an admission that recruiting Ma from the Conservatives was a strategic error. And it would risk the parliamentary majority the Liberals are close to securing.⁹

So the prime minister who stood in Davos and said Canada would stop pretending is now pretending. He is pretending that an apology resolves the matter. He is pretending that two blocked shipments constitutes a rigorous system. He is pretending that the word “genocide” — which Parliament voted to apply five years ago — is too complicated to repeat.

The House of Commons declared China’s treatment of the Uyghurs a genocide in 2021. The United Nations said in 2022 that the abuses may amount to crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch documented forced labour in China’s EV aluminum supply chains. Canada’s own government sanctioned McCuaig-Johnston’s research organization. And when the prime minister was asked on Tuesday whether he agreed with Parliament’s own declaration, he said the Uyghurs had been “rightly called out” — in the past tense. He would not say the word genocide. He would not say forced labour exists in China. He attended a fundraiser co-hosted by the MP who questioned it. And his government has blocked two shipments. In Davos, Carney said the power of the less powerful begins with honesty. In Ottawa, it appears to end there.