Anand's officials used Kamloops ‘mass grave’ claims in talks with China on Uyghur abuses

Internal federal records show Foreign Affairs officials referenced the alleged “mass grave” at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School while urging China to change its treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.Blacklock's Reporter says Access-to-Information documents reveal officials in Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s department prepared briefing notes and talking points acknowledging Canada’s past treatment of indigenous peoples while pressing Beijing on human rights abuses in Xinjiang Province.“Canada strongly urges China not to repeat Canada’s past mistakes,” one departmental memo stated.Another document prepared for discussions with Chinese officials said: “Canada acknowledges the injustice it has inflicted and we call on China to do the same.”The records show federal officials were concerned China was using the Kamloops claims to counter criticism over allegations of forced labour, mass detention camps, forced abortions and other abuses targeting Uyghur Muslims.“China is now actively using the discovery of the graves of indigenous children in Canada to deflect from valid criticisms of their human rights violations in Xinjiang,” one undated memo warned.Officials noted Chinese representatives repeatedly cited the Kamloops claims to argue Canada lacked moral authority to criticize Beijing’s human rights record.“Chinese officials have raised the discovery of the mass grave at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to highlight Canada’s failings in human rights in an attempt to delegitimize concerns expressed about the situation in Xinjiang,” the memo said..The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced in 2021 it had identified what it described as 215 potential unmarked graves near the former Kamloops residential school using ground-penetrating radar. No human remains have been excavated or confirmed.Despite that, the federal government committed $12.1 million toward potential exhumation work and DNA analysis connected to the site.Internal emails from 2024 and 2025 show diplomats continued crafting what officials called “suggested talking points” aimed at countering accusations of hypocrisy from Beijing.One memo instructed diplomats to “respond to accusations of hypocrisy” by emphasizing Canada’s own reconciliation efforts and acknowledgment of historic wrongdoing.“Canada is still dealing with the intergenerational harm caused by past assimilationist policies that separated indigenous children from their parents and placed them in Residential Schools,” another briefing note stated.The documents also reveal Canadian diplomats planned to raise allegations involving Tibetan and Uyghur children during meetings with Chinese officials.“For more than a century, indigenous children in Canada were taken from their families and placed in Residential Schools,” diplomats wrote ahead of a July 24 meeting with a Chinese consul.“Today we recognize this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in society. In the spirit of encouraging others not to repeat Canada’s mistakes, we call on China to end its practice of forcing Tibetan and Uyghur children into residential schools.”.A Commons foreign affairs subcommittee concluded in 2020 that China’s treatment of Uyghurs amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Parliament has twice passed motions condemning Beijing’s actions against Uyghurs since 2021.One senior policy analyst complained in a July 18 email that the Chinese Communist Party continued to invoke Canada’s treatment of indigenous peoples and the Kamloops claims to sidestep criticism.“I am hoping I might bend your ear and pen to assist on some counter-whataboutism key messages used in Canada-China bilateral relations,” the analyst wrote colleagues.While Anand and other cabinet ministers never publicly compared Kamloops to Chinese detention camps, internal briefing material continued using similar language in communications with Beijing.A May 6, 2024 briefing note stated: “Canada continues to urge China not to repeat Canada’s past mistakes and to recognize the harm that its current policies are inflicting on ethnic and religious minorities in China.”

Anand's officials used Kamloops ‘mass grave’ claims in talks with China on Uyghur abuses

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