Cabinet likened Uyghur concentration camps to Indian Residential Schools
On China, Trudeau stated his primary concern was to avoid misapplying the "extremely loaded term" genocide to describe their treatment of Uyghurs.

A cabinet briefing note likened Chinese concentration camps to Canada's Indian Residential School system, following private talks where Canadian diplomats advised Chinese Communist Party officials "not to repeat Canada’s past mistakes."
A May 2024 briefing note, Assistance To China, prepared for the Minister of International Development, reveals Canada is urging China to acknowledge the harm its policies inflict on ethnic and religious minorities, learning from Canada's past errors.
In 2020, a Commons subcommittee reported that China's Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang faced forced abortion, organ harvesting, slave labour, and mass detention. MPs, citing witness testimonies, believe these acts constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, urging the Canadian government to act.
The RCMP's eight-year investigation into B.C. residential schools confirms no evidence of murders or clandestine burials, according to the Real Indigenous Report.
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 3, 2025
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Blacklock's reported that an "Assistance To China" briefing note confirmed "credible reports" of Uyghur repression in Xinjiang, comparing their treatment to Canadian policies under the Indian Act. The note detailed "State run forced labour programs" targeting Uyghurs, relocating them to factories, and destroying families and communities.
Uyghur children in Xinjiang are being “forcibly placed in residential schools” that prioritize Mandarin, undermining their language, culture, and religion. Canada acknowledged the intergenerational harm from its own past residential school policies on Indigenous children.
The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission labelled the Residential School system "cultural genocide," a term then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accepted. Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from a 2021 Commons vote censuring China for genocide; the motion passed 266-0.
Trudeau stated the government's primary concern was to avoid misapplying the "extremely loaded term" genocide to situations that don't meet clear, internationally recognized criteria.
“There is no question there have been tremendous human rights abuses reported out of Xinjiang and we are extremely concerned,” he clarified on February 16, 2021. “But when it comes to the application of the very specific word ‘genocide’ we simply need to ensure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.”
Memo @GAC_Corporate compares #Xinjiang concentration camps to Indian Residential Schools, says diplomats asked Chinese Communist Party "not to repeat Canada's past mistakes." https://t.co/YjvJfVhPEG @UyghurStop @AnitaAnandMP pic.twitter.com/UA5z3Co1oQ
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) October 20, 2025
Meanwhile, an eight-year RCMP investigation found no evidence of murders or clandestine burials at B.C. residential schools. However, 14 men were arrested for other abuses investigated by a 1995 task force that gathered over 4,000 tips, leading to 974 criminal allegations against 129 individuals.
Only two allegations of murders were received, which the RCMP investigators found to be baseless, as well as one allegation surrounding unmarked burials, also unsubstantiated.
Other allegations included infant deaths, often stillborns buried in unmarked graves. More disturbing claims involved a baby deliberately killed post-birth and buried in a basement, and even a satanic ritual sacrifice in the woods; though no evidence supported these allegations.
Canada's unmarked graves fund, initially $238.8 million in 2022 and extended to March 2026, has disbursed $246.7 million with requests now totalling $704.3 million.
Alex Dhaliwal
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Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-10-20 19:39:49 -0400Native residential schools never sterilized students but ones for “mental defectives” did. By that standard, those eugenics-based institution in Canada were worse than native residential schools.