Rights Groups Urge Ottawa to Sanction Chinese Officials Over Falun Gong Persecution

Two Canadian human rights organizations are pressing the federal government to impose targeted sanctions on senior Chinese officials responsible for decades of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

The Falun Gong Human Rights Group (FGHR) and the Human Rights Action Group (HRAG) have submitted a formal request to the Sanctions Bureau of Global Affairs Canada, recommending that Canada invoke the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) to designate two senior Chinese Communist Party officials who they say are linked to “gross and systemic human rights violations.”