Each time a Canadian delegation goes to China, the question of human rights abuses is raised. Should Canadians deal with a country that has a documented record of abuses against individual rights?
The controversy surfaced again when Concordia University, on its trip with the Team Canada economic mission, signed seven agreements with Chinese educational institutions.

Each time a Canadian delegation goes to China, the question of human rights abuses is raised. Should Canadians deal with a country that has a documented record of abuses against individual rights?
The controversy surfaced again last month when Concordia University, on its trip with the Team Canada economic mission, signed seven agreements with Chinese educational institutions.
Dr. Martin Singer, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Concordia, was part of the delegation. But he does not believe Concordia deserves the criticism it has received for its cooperation with China.
"We're not making formal agreements with the Chinese government," Singer said. "What we're doing is promoting person-to-person interaction...[Human rights] is not relevant to academic cooperation."

Society versus the individual

Dr. Singer has studied Chinese culture for more than 35 years and has visited the country over 20 times over the last 26 years.
"China approaches human rights from a different point of view," he said. "China has a long history and a long culture that does not regard the Canadian view on human rights as more valid than their own."
Singer said China has a different way of dealing with human rights. "In China, the rights of the individual are subordinate to the rights of the group."
However, Rob Green, President of the Concordia Student Union strongly disagrees with Singer. Green said it is shameful that Concordia is interacting with a country that has such a poor human rights record. In an interview last week, Green suggested Canada and other countries "isolate and humiliate China, until change occurs."
The consequences of isolating China would be harmful to its citizens, according to Kitty Luu, internal Vice-President of the Concordia Chinese Association. "There's a dark side in China for sure," Luu said. "But [isolating them] would not only harm the dark side, but the innocent people too."
Luu does not believe Canada has the right to take a stance on Chinese human rights. "It's like telling your neighbours how to raise their kids; you just can't do that."

Imposing moralities

Dr. Sherene Razack, a professor at the University of Toronto, is a strong critic of the trend that sees Western countries taking an imperialistic stance on other countries.
"One of the themes I'm particularly concerned with in my work is the way in which nations, as well as individuals, present themselves as morally superior to other nations," explained Razack. "The outcome of that position is usually domination."
She said that one of the results of countries critiquing other nations about their human rights records, is that self-criticism gets stifled. Razack added that Canada should clean up its own act first.
"We also need to look at the kind of human rights abuses we engage in," Razack noted. "What do we do around Aboriginal people [in Canada]? We set up conditions where they're obliged to kill themselves. Is that human rights abuse? Yes, it is."

Abuses documented

Amnesty International, a global human rights watch, has documented many of the abuses faced by people in China. In a recent report on China, Amnesty said torture is "widespread and systematic" and affects members of society ranging from political activists to petty criminals.
"I think the two worse violations [in China] are torture and the use of the death penalty," said Carole Channer, of Amnesty International's Montreal chapter. "Our position is that the situation has deteriorated quite sharply since the end of 1998."
According to Amnesty International, in 1997 alone, the Chinese government executed 1,876 citizens and sentenced at least 3,152 more to the same fate. Channer pointed out that statistics like these only represent a fraction of the executions carried out, since most go unreported. Although Channer admits that the use of the death penalty exists in many other countries, including the United States, she said that no other country uses the death penalty as pervasively and for such a wide range of crimes.
Amnesty International has also condemned Canada for human rights violations in the past. "There have been two Amnesty missions to Canada. One at the time of the Oka Crisis and another at the time of the big disturbance in the Parthenais Detention Centre in Montreal," Channer said.
"I'm sure that there are problems in China and I'm sure there are problems in Canada," Singer said. "The scale of problems is different, but we're not a perfect country."
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