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Hong Kong protests
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Campaigners urge Canada’s Trudeau to adopt US-style Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act

  • The Canadian leader has kept relatively quiet regarding the Hong Kong protests. Campaigners hope that will change now the election is behind him
  • But some experts say he is unlikely to risk jeopardising trade

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Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under renewed pressure to speak out on the Hong Kong protests. Photo: Reuters
Crystal Tai
Newly re-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has successfully run for office, but he cannot hide from the issues. That is the message from campaigners who are demanding the Liberal Party leader speak up on political protests in Hong Kong that have entered their 22nd week.
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In the lead-up to last week’s knife-edge federal elections – which returned Trudeau’s party to power but as a minority government – the Canadian leader had come under pressure to back the protests after the rival Conservatives raised the issue on the campaign trail, with leader Andrew Scheer provocatively tweeting that “Now, and in the coming days, we are all Hongkongers”.
But Trudeau had kept largely silent on the issue, leading observers to speculate he saw it as too much of a hot potato to risk raising before such a close vote, especially given Canada’s large Chinese diaspora and clashes on university campuses between students identifying as either “pro-Hong Kong” or “pro-Beijing”.

Now with the election pressure out of the way, campaigners hope Trudeau will feel less constrained and are stepping up the pressure on him to address both the protests and Canada’s ties with China, its second-largest two-way trade partner.

The Facebook page of Canadian Conservatives in Hong Kong. Before the election, the Conservatives had tried to make the Hong Kong protests a campaigning issue.
The Facebook page of Canadian Conservatives in Hong Kong. Before the election, the Conservatives had tried to make the Hong Kong protests a campaigning issue.
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On October 23, just a day after the election, a platform involving more than a dozen pro-Hong Kong protest groups across Canada sent an open letter to Trudeau congratulating him on his win, and requesting that he take a stronger stance in support of the Hong Kong protests.

“We wish to urge your government to reaffirm and materialise Canada’s support for the people of Hong Kong and revisit Canada’s strategy on China amid mounting pressure from the Chinese Communist Party to influence our politics, economy, and way of life,” read the letter by #CanSaveHK, which has over 200 likes on Facebook and 130 shares.

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