BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Touting itself as a "model for human rights," Canada has been making irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in other countries, with no regard for its own terrible records of human rights violations.
Canada has seriously encroached upon the human rights of the indigenous people. The recent discovery in May of the remains of 215 indigenous children at the site of a former indigenous residential school in southern British Colombia is a clear reminder of Canada's historical atrocities of killing the indigenous people, robbing their land and resources, and eradicating their culture.
An estimated 150,000 indigenous children across Canada were reportedly removed from their homes and forced to attend residential schools between the 1890s and as recently as 1996, during which more than 50,000 died of abuses. Until today, people of Asian and African descent in Canada are still suffering from systemic racial discrimination, and rights of migrants are wantonly offended.
The Canadian government enacted in 1876 the Indian Act, a federal law granting the government exclusive rights to create legislation regarding Indian status, bands and reserves.
In 2007, when the international community adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canada, along with the United States, Australia and New Zealand voted against it, and did not reverse its position until 2016.
For years, the indigenous people in Canada have long been socially marginalized and poorly educated and paid, with their basic human rights unprotected and their life expectancy cut by nearly 10 years compared with other groups.
In Canadian history, Asians also suffer a lot from racism and hate crimes. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 placed a head tax of 50 Canadian dollars on all Chinese immigrants entering Canada. If a Chinese immigrant applied for a re-entry into Canada after leaving the country over two years, he needed to pay the head tax for another time.
Such restriction continued as the Canadian government raised the head tax time and time again. In 1900, the head tax was raised to 100 dollars and then to 500 dollars in 1903, which was an equivalent of two year's wages for a Chinese labor.
In 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which was also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada, replaced the previous restrictive decrees and entirely banned Chinese immigration.
Other minority groups in Canada are also suffering from systemic racial discrimination.
A study released in May 2020 by government agency Statistics Canada found that 55 percent of visible minorities by Vancouver, 36 percent by Montreal, and 31 percent by Toronto have reported an increase in harassment since COVID-19.
A report published in September 2020 by British Columbia's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, titled "Disaggregated Demographic Data Collection in British Columbia: The Grandmother Perspective," found that "56 percent of Black Canadians report layoffs or reduced working hours during COVID-19."
"A recent study in Toronto found Black people and People of Colour account for 83 percent of reported COVID-19 cases," it added.
The non-profit organization Canadians for Tax Fairness released a report on Nov. 26, 2020, in which it noted that the wealth of Canada's top 44 billionaires increased by 53 billion Canadian dollars, or by more than 28 percent, from early April to October. Meanwhile, "millions of ordinary Canadians and small businesses have struggled to stay afloat."
Discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims are also rampant in Canada.
Data by Statistics Canada showed that hate crimes across the country targeting Muslims rose by 151 percent in 2017. In January that year, six people were killed and 19 others wounded when gunmen opened fire at a mosque in Canada's Quebec City during evening prayers.
Early this month, four members of a Muslim family in Ontario were killed and a nine-year-old boy was wounded in a hit-and-run attack motivated by religious hatred.
According to media reports, from 2015 to 2019, the National Council of Canadian Muslims tracked more than 300 hateful incidents against Muslims.
Besides, an exclusive poll released in May 2019 by Paris-headquartered multinational market research and consulting firm Ipsos for Canadian television network Global News showed that "more than a quarter of Canadians believe that over the past five years, it's become 'more acceptable' to be prejudiced against Muslims." Enditem
