Guilty of Being Canadian ... Incarcerated in China

Huseyn Celil, Uighur activist, Cdn citizen

"It's been really tough for us. I always say, 'I wish he would come back and see you guys [their children], how much you've grown'."

"They are becoming adults and they haven't seen their dad since they were little [14 years earlier]."

"I was hoping for more from the Liberal government, but Trudeau hasn't done anything."

Kamila Talendibaeva, Canadian Uighur, Toronto

"After those Canadians [Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig] got arrested ... it was like nothing happened, business as usual with the Chinese government."

"That basically gave them a signal, a message: 'It's OK to arrest a Canadian citizen. There's no consequences."

"There's a green light." 

"She [Sun Qian] is almost forgotten in a very dark, cruel place."

Grace Wollensack, Falun Gong Canadian spokeswoman

Sun Qian, a Canadian citizen and Falun Gong practitioner. Supplied

Canadian citizen Sun Qian was forced before a Chinese court on Tuesday, sentenced to eight years in prison; her crime: following the Falun Gong movement, banned in China. Accused and first arrested in 2017 as being involved in "heretical religious organizations" which threatened to disrupt the law, her lawyer Xie Yanyi, attempted repeatedly to secure a meeting on his client's behalf with John McCallum, then the Canadian ambassador to China, but was unsuccessful.

Unsurprising, that Ambassador McCallum was disinterested in becoming 'involved' as is the duty of a diplomat in a foreign country, representing the interests of his own country and that of its citizens, instead reflecting the commercial-trade interests of the Liberal government -- any Canadian Liberal government -- intent on securing inroads into doing more business with China, securing trade agreements, ingratiating themselves with the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien infamously made a great show of hauling along Canadian business executives on his many and lavish trade trips to China while in public office, paving the way for the future when, no longer prime minister, he took advantage of all the Chinese business contacts he had made, to guide Canadian business leaders into the huge market to exploit trade and investment opportunities as a consultant for a large and influential Canadian law firm.

His successor, Justin Trudeau, is no less invested in the same mission, after a Conservative government intermission led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper who, citing human rights abuses, was loathe to move Canada into the CCP-Beijing orbit and was roundly criticized and belittled by Liberal party leaders as a result. Notoriously, behind-the-scenes diplomatic overtures for the release of Canadians from Chinese prisons have failed.

Ms.Sun, a Canadian citizen since 2007, spent time both in Vancouver and Beijing, where she and her husband were owners of a biochemical company. On her original arrest she was forced to wear arm and leg shackles for prolonged periods of time; was repeatedly pepper-sprayed and subjected to anti-Falun Gong brainwashing. She now has been punished further with an additional eight years in prison, a situation her lawyer links to pressure Beijing is applying to Canada for the release of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, held in Canada on a U.S. extradition request.

Kamila Talendibaeva's husband Huseyn Celil has spent 14 years in prison, not permitted any contact whatever with his Canadian family, though he too holds Canadian citizenship. His relatives in China were able to visit with him every six months, relaying information about him back to his wife and children, living in Toronto. Until they too disappeared, vanished into a Chinese prison for Falun Gong crimes against China.

FreeChina.net  Wang Bing-Zhang

Wang Bing-Zhang, 72, imprisoned in China as a pro-democracy activist whose wife, children and parents are all Canadian citizens has not seen his family in 17 years. His daughter Ti-Anna Wang, a Toronto lawyer, has admitted that the family's appeals to the Canadian government appear to have fallen on deaf ears: "We have 17, 18 years now of experience and we know what doesn't work", she stated. 

According to Cherie Wong of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, 123 Canadians are being detained in China, in a country that harshly punishes dissenters as 'terrorists' plotting against the unity of the country. Celil's family had been visiting his wife's relatives in Uzbekistan in 2006 when he was arrested and handed over to China where he was convicted of terrorist activities, with no 'evidence' ever being presented to support the charge. 

As for Mr. Wang, he co-founded the overseas Chinese democracy movement, was captured in Vietnam in 2002 by Chinese secret police who spirited him across the border where he was convicted at a one-day closed trial of spying, and terrorism; no evidence required. So much for Canada's distinguished record as a supporter of human rights, concerned for the welfare of its own citizens.

Pictures of Michael Spavor, a Canadian businessman, and Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, both detained in China since December 2018, are displayed on a video monitor as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington, U.S., July 1, 2020. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool via REUTERS

Iran: Terrorism Central

"The fact is that most major terrorism's financial abettors and supporters ... have successfully avoided criminal prosecution."
"Civil liability cases ... associated with terrorism may constitute the best constraints we have against their activities and our best chances to hold them accountable."
Victor Comras, UN appointed overseer of Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act

The Islamic Republic of Iran has more than adequately demonstrated its commitment to human rights abuses through its traditional and ongoing investment in terrorism as a tool of Islamist jihad. From 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris to administer a new Iran on the overthrow of Shah Pahlevi, a new Islamism has arisen, refreshing the concept of violent expressions of jihadist conquest.

That was the year that Iranian militant students led by clerics steeped in the new fanaticism of resurgent jihad stormed the United States embassy in Tehran to take 52 Americans hostage and hold them as prisoners of Iranian Islamism for 444 days until Jimmy Carter left office and Ronald Reagan took the presidency. This bold act of international terrorism inaugurated a new era in Iranian/American relations, one that Supreme Leader Khomeini praised to the skies.

The Iranian Republic twice named two men linked to the hostage taking to ambassadorial positions in Canada in 2007, and both were rejected for their links to that international outrage. Leading Iran to expel Canada's ambassador in retaliation for the insufferable insult. In 2003 Iranian-Canadian Zahra Kazemi a freelance photojournalist visited her native country and was given a permit to take photographs of Iranians. Doing just that in front of Evin prison in Tehran, of protesters landed her in Evin prison.

Where she was beaten, raped and tortured. When she was transferred eventually in an unconscious state, to a hospital in Tehran, she had a brain injury, a fractured nose, crushed eardrum, back and leg wounds, fractured bones and broken nails on hands and feet, along with extensive trauma on and around her genital area. She was removed from life support and pronounced dead. Requests from her family in Canada to have her body returned were ignored.

And Saeed Mortazavi, the Iranian prosecutor general, responsible for and involved in her torture was dispatched to Geneva three years later representing the Iranian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council. That has its more current echoes in the past week's election by the United Nations of Syria's ambassador Bashar J'afari as Rapporteur of the UN on its Decolonization Committee; a fitting post for a representative of a human-rights-abusing regime.

IRGC Navy Commander Adm. Ali Fadavi said that enemies will never dare to attack Iran because they are afraid of Iran’s deterrent power. Photo: Shiite Media / flickr

Iran continues to arrest people they accuse of "insulting the sanctity of Islam" and for "insulting Ira's supreme leader". Journalists and human rights defenders find themselves as well locked into Iranian jails. Pro-democracy uprisings are crushed, and inmates of Iran's prisons can expect torture of a prison system that is infamous for being the venue of the world's highest per capita rate of executions, where minors are sentenced to death for "criminal acts" while people of the LGBT community and religious and ethnic minorities regularly have their human rights violated.

The much-celebrated election two years ago of a "moderate" president when Hassan Rouhani replaced his volubly unstable and sinister predecessor Mahmoud Ahmedinejad simply highlights the international community's unwillingness to face the reality of a nuclear-weapons-aspiring, terrorist-supporting state that has been given a free pass by the members of the Security Council plus Germany to continue its malevolence on the world stage, restoring its financial stability in the process.

And nor could international corporations from France, Germany, the United States and elsewhere contain themselves with excitement at the prospect of being able at last to enter the Iranian market and conduct deals of trade and investment, further enriching the Republic to enable it to continue funding groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hamas in Gaza, the Yemenite Houthis and Shiite militias fighting alongside Syria's military, killing Sunni Syrians.



From Iran's tasking the Republican Guard Corps al Quds division to set up a new Shiite death squad comprised of willing martyrs calling themselves Hezbollah, who performed their first missions to resounding success in Beirut in 1983, targeting American and French military barracks and the U.S. embassy, leading to hundreds of deaths, to later missions in Berlin, Buenos Aires and Burgas Bulgaria, Iran's involvement in international atrocities is well known, but preferably ignored.

Jewish Philanthropy

"[My debt] applies to so many young people who were on the Kindertransports. It was Quakers and other Christian denominations who brought those children to England."
"In the 1930s thousands of Jews, mainly women and children, were helped by Christians who took enormous personal risks to save them from certain death. We owe a debt of gratitude."
Lord George Weidenfeld, British House of Lords

Egyptian Copts have some measure of state protection under the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Who went so far as to condemn the oppression they had suffered, and their fears during the one-year presidency of Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. And who went so far in January of 2015 to visit the main Coptic Church in Cairo to declare his support for his fellow Egyptians, including Christians.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (2nd R) talks next to Coptic Pope Tawadros II as he attends Christmas Eve Mass at St. Mark's Cathedral. (Reuters)

For the present they are not persecuted by the state. Under former President Hosni Mubarak relations were static, but no new Christian churches were to be built, nor old ones refurbished. Egypt is 90 percent Muslim. In Libya, Islamic State affiliates took credit for beheading 21 Egyptian Copts who were on temporary work assignment there. Egypt responded by sending in its military jets to bomb the ISIL camp. 

In parts of Syria and Iraq which have succumbed to Islamic State's caliphate, Christians have been cleansed from the geography. Four years ago over a million Christians called Syria their home. Since Islamic State's campaign to enslave, torture, crucify and slaughter the Christians that lived there, 700,000 have fled, abandoning their historical, Biblical-era homeland.

At one time Christians constituted half of Lebanon's population; they are now reduced to a third. Under the Palestinian Authority, the Christian population in the West Bank has been severely diminished; Bethlehem's population of Christians was halved. In Israel, by contrast, the Christian population, both Arab and non-Arab has risen, enjoying civil rights protection.

Recently, 150 Syrian Christians were flown to safety and refuge in Poland, thanks to the humanitarian work of the Weidenfeld Safe Havens Fund which focuses strictly on support for Christian refugees from the Middle East. That 150 flown to haven in Poland will receive eighteen months of support to aid them in their new homes, transforming their lives from helpless flight to promise of delivery from languishing in refugee camps.

A young Christian Syrian couple with their seven month old daughter flank Miriam Shaded, a Polish church charity worker, who will help the families resettle in Poland, in Warsaw last week. Shaded has a Syrian Christian background and works for the Esther Foundation. (courtesy)

Lord George Weidenfeld, a life peer, philanthropist, founder of the European Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a Jew and honourary vice-president of the World Jewish Congress and fiercely committed Zionist, 95 years of age, is also a committed rescuer of endangered Christian populations. Troubled by the plight of one of the world's oldest Christian communities, he has focused on doing what he can to help where he can.

In acknowledgement of the scale of the numbers fleeing persecution, he knows he cannot save the world in a sense, but he is resolved to give two thousand Christian families a new lease on life. He has faced critics who complain his rescue plan is restricted to Christians. Because his rescue doesn't include Yazidis, Druze or Shiite Muslims, the U.S. government has declined participation.

The contrast between what one determined man can achieve with the limited means at his disposal, and that of the Gulf monarchies, sitting on untold riches yet unmoved by the plight of fellow Middle Eastern Arabs to the point where they sit with aplomb on oil reserves, and wait for countries of the West to step in and absorb refugees they themselves have no intention of diluting their population base with, is of polar opposites.

Lord Weidenfeld will explain to anyone who is interested, that 77 years ago when he was in his teens he was taken from Vienna to London.  There the Plymouth Brethren provided for him, giving him opportunities to feel he was worth protecting. Sir Nicholas Winton pioneered trains to carry over 650 children out of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to the United Kingdom, from 1938-1940. 

Sir Winton, was termed the ‘British Schindler,’ and he died in July. Now Lord Weidenfeld's focus is on Christians whose plight is dire; his way of returning the kindness done to him.

Palestinians: A Rare Voice of Sanity by Khaled Abu Toameh July 30, 2015 at 5:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6236/palestinians-sanity While many in the international community and media hold Israel fully responsible for the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Abrash offers a completely different perspective. Referring to widespread corruption under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, the former Palestinian minister reveals that Palestinian academic institutions, including universities and colleges, have become "commercial projects for granting certificates that have no scientific value or content." This is a voice that is rarely given a platform in mainstream media outlets in the West, whose journalists continue to focus almost entirely on stories that reflect negatively on Israel. Western journalists based in the Middle East tend to ignore Palestinians who are critical of the PA or Hamas, because such criticism does not fit the narrative according to which Israel is solely responsible for all the bad things that happen to the Palestinians. Abrash's criticism of Hamas and the PA -- whom he openly holds responsible for the suffering of their people -- actually reflects the widespread sentiment among Palestinians. Over the past few years, a growing number of Palestinians have come to realize that their leaders have failed them again and again and are now aware that both Hamas and the PA, as corrupt as ever, are hindering efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip. It is almost unheard of for a prominent Palestinian figure to hold the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas equally responsible for corruption and abuse of power. Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, a former Palestinian Minister of Culture from the Gaza Strip, recently surprised many Palestinians by publishing an article that included a scathing attack on both the PA and Hamas, holding them responsible for the continued suffering of their people. In his article, Dr. Abrash also holds the two Palestinian parties responsible for the delay in rebuilding thousands of houses that were destroyed or damaged in the Gaza Strip during last year's military conflict between Israel and Hamas. He points out that Hamas and the PA have been holding each other responsible for the suffering of Palestinians. "Sometimes, they also put all the blame on Israel for all that is happening in the Gaza Strip," he said. Referring to the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which reached its peak with the violent takeover by Hamas of the entire Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Dr. Abrash accused the two rival parties of exploiting their dispute to cover up corruption in vital sectors of Palestinian society. "In light of the division [between the PA-controlled West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza], corruption and absence of accountability have become widespread," Dr. Abrash wrote. "This division has led to the collapse of the political system and the system of values, and an increase in corruption. This has also allowed many opportunists and hypocrites to reach important positions, where they do anything they want without being held accountable." J'Accuse. Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, a former Palestinian Minister of Culture (left), accuses Palestinian Authority and Hamas officials of corruption, extortion, opportunism and hypocrisy. Pictured in the middle is PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and at right Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. And while many in the international community and media continue to hold Israel fully responsible for the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Abrash offers a completely different perspective. Noting that the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip have fallen victim to the power struggle between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, he says that no one today knows who is supposed to be helping the people living there. "The interests of the people have been lost as result of the two parties' rivalry," Dr. Abrash said. "No one knows who is in charge of the people's needs in the Gaza Strip -- Hamas, which is the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, or the Palestinian Authority and its national consensus government. Or is it UNRWA and the donors who are responsible? Or is it the sole responsibility of Israel as an occupation state? To whom should the people direct their complaints?" Referring to widespread corruption under the PA in the West Bank, the former Palestinian minister reveals that Palestinian academic institutions, including universities and colleges, have become "commercial projects for granting certificates that have no scientific value or content." Dr. Abrash points out that no one knows whether universities and colleges in the Gaza Strip are subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Education in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. He also blasts the PA's Ministry of Civilian Affairs for exploiting and extorting Palestinians who seek travel permits, especially those wishing to leave the Gaza Strip. He goes on to hold Hamas responsible for "harassing" Palestinians who wish to leave the Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing (to Israel). Dr. Abrash claims that some Palestinians are forced to pay bribes to Palestinian officials to obtain a travel permit. "Many people have been subjected to blackmail and procrastination [by Palestinian officials] after Israel eased travel restrictions at the Bet Hanoun [Erez] border crossing," he said. "But the people are afraid to complain, out of fear that they would be denied travel permits in the future. What is happening at the border crossing has created favoritism and bribery." Dr. Abrash concludes his article with a rhetorical question: "Isn't it shameful and irritating that while Israel has been issuing travel permits for those with special needs, some influential [Palestinian] officials are placing obstacles? Until when will they continue to manipulate and blackmail the people of the Gaza Strip?" Dr. Abrash's article represents a rare voice of sanity among Palestinians. This is a voice that does not blame all the miseries of Palestinians on Israel alone and holds the Palestinians leadership also responsible for the continued suffering of their people. However, this is a voice that is rarely given a platform in mainstream media outlets in the West, whose journalists continue to focus almost entirely on stories that reflect negatively on Israel. Western journalists based in the Middle East tend to ignore Palestinians who are critical of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. That is because such criticism does not fit the narrative according to which Israel is solely responsible for all the bad things that happen to the Palestinians. Dr. Abrash's criticism of Hamas and the PA -- whom he openly holds responsible for the suffering of their people -- actually reflects the widespread sentiment among Palestinians. Over the past few years, a growing number of Palestinians have come to realize that their leaders have failed them again and again. Today, many Palestinians are aware of the fact that both Hamas and the PA are responsible for hindering efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip and that the two parties are as corrupt as ever. But when will the international community and media wake up and comprehend what many Palestinians came to understand years ago, namely that the real tragedy of the Palestinian people has been -- and remains -- bad and irresponsible leadership? Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen as long as the world continues to see Israel as the villain.

  UN Watch

Rights Group: EU & US Allowed Iran to Win Seat On UN Women’s Rights Board

Published on April 13, 2015 in Iran by unwatch F

Ban Ki-moon and EU’s Mogherini must condemn election of Iran to UN women’s rights board

• UN Watch letter to EU
• UN Watch letter to Ban Ki-moon

UNITED NATIONS, April 13, 2015 – Out of possible deference to the nuclear talks with Iran, the EU and the US failed to stop the fundamentalist regime from winning a top post on UN Women, the world agency for women’s equality and empowerment, in sharp contrast to the West’s easy defeat of Iran’s 2010 bid by backing an alternative candidate, said UN Watch, the Geneva-based rights group, in a statement today.

“Electing the Iranian regime to the UN women’s rights board is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. “The UN’s decision is an insult to all Iranian women and to all women’s rights advocates around the world,” he added.


In letters sent today (see PDFs above), UN Watch urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to at least condemn the decision, “which sends absolutely the worst message to Iran’s women’s rights defenders, and to the world, concerning Iran’s dismal record on child marriages, forced head-coverings, domestic violence, and gender inequality,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.

“By elevating Iran to a global leadership post on women’s equality, the UN is legitimizing a regime that systematically treats women as second-class citizens.”

“The UN’s election of Iran by an overwhelming two-thirds majority is a moral outrage that threatens to undermine the UN Secretary-General’s own report on Iran’s pervasive discrimination against women,” said Neuer. Iran won 36 out of a possible 54 votes from the UN Economic and Social Council.

“Iran is considered one of the worst countries in the world on women’s rights, ranking 137th out of 142 countries in the latest Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum,” said Neuer.


UN Watch pointed out that in 2010, the US and the EU strongly backed an alternative candidate, the otherwise weak East Timor, causing Iran to lose its bid that year for a seat the Executive Board of UN Women.

“This time, possibly in deference to the Iran nuclear talks, the West failed to back any alternative candidates. Although the U.S. admirably called a vote in protest, this came at the last minute and with no other candidates on the ballot, meaning Iran’s victory was guaranteed,” said Neuer.

“Did the U.S. and EU deliberately give Iran a free pass? This is something that that US and EU lawmakers should demand to know,” said Neuer.

“What makes Iran such an offensive choice is not only its abysmal record on women’s rights but also the fact that it’s aggressively going after women’s rights defenders who courageously speak out against misogynistic laws in the country,” he added.

“Time and again, Iran shows contempt to the founding purpose of UN Women, and should never have been elected to its board.”

Election of Iran Undermines UN Chief’s Own Report
In February, Mr. Ban reported to the UN Human Rights Council on Iran’s abysmal record on child marriages, forced head-covering enforced by morality police, acid attacks, domestic violence, spousal rape, state-enforced control of women by their husbands, and gross inequality in the workplace, education and public sphere.

Although UN officials sometimes claim their inability to criticize elections by member states, UN Watch’s letter to Ban recalled that UNESCO chief Irina Bokova rightly criticized the 2011 election of Syria to two human rights committees.

“Accordingly, we urge you to speak out forcefully against this cynical attempt by Iran to undermine the global struggle for women’s equality and empowerment,” wrote Neuer in the UN Watch letter to Secretary-General Ban.

Iranian Journalist Masih Alinejad Condemns Election of Regime

Writing to 700,000 followers of her Facebook page for Iranian women’s rights, journalist Masih Alinejad, winner of the 2015 Geneva Summit Women’s Rights Award, called the election “an insult to many Iranian women who are suffering from the lack of equal rights.”

“The existing laws in my country do not allow me as a woman to walk in public without wearing the veil; I, as a woman, do not even have the freedom to choose my own dress. The laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran do not allow me to travel or get an education without the permission of my husband. I cannot even get married without the permission of my father.”

“The laws in my country do not allow women to sing solo as our voice allegedly runs the risk of provoking men. Under laws of the Islamic Republic, my share of inheritance is half of that of my male relatives. Under the laws of the Islamic Republic, just last year more than 18,000 women ended up in court for being ‘badly veiled.’ UN Women was created by the United Nations as a body for gender equality and for the empowerment of women. If so, isn’t it an insult to women to give the leadership role to those governments that oppress their own women?”