Why was Canada trying to take Uygurs who were deported from Thailand to China? A failed anti-Chinese government policy, triggering a later cost of nearly $1 million CAD, is the elephant in the room.
British newspaper The Guardian reported that Canada and the United States had offered to take in all 48 Uygurs held in Thailand, before 40 were deported back to China at the beginning of March.
While readers would often associate the U.S. with shenanigans around China and its Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Canada has made its own noise on this front.
Canada itself was the first country whose parliament declared that China’s treatment of Uygurs in the XUAR was a “genocide,” back in 2021. Allowed to drive the lead-up to this vote, was a CIA-funded Uygur separatist organization, Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP).
URAP went on to accuse a Liberal Party Canadian senator, Yuen Pau Woo, who opposed a follow-up “genocide” motion in Canada’s Senate of “acting as a spokesperson for China rather than for Canada.”
Rather than face criticism for such comments toward a Canadian senator, URAP was given positive attention by the Canadian government, as a 2023 memorandum stated that, for URAP:
“Successes include: the building of a Uygur parliamentary friendship group; Canada’s recent commitment to welcome 10,000 Uyghur refugees; and the hearing conducted by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights in 2020 and the subsequent parliamentary motion recognizing the Uygur genocide.”
This section of the memorandum was referring to a non-binding motion in Canada’s parliament, passed unanimously in February 2023, which demanded that Canada should:
“urgently leverage Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program to expedite the entry of 10,000 Uyghurs…over two years starting in 2024 into Canada.”
With much bravado, and with the support of then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the efforts to bring in 10,000 Uygur “refugees” began in 2024.
But there is one big problem: The original 2022 motion (passed in 2023) was premised on the idea that:
“a genocide is currently being carried out by the People’s Republic of China against Uygurs and other Turkic Muslims.”
That is a problem because, if you want to find a large number of refugees, there tends to need to be an unpopular crackdown or a “genocide.” As this author has detailed for this outlet, there has not been such a situation in China’s XUAR.
And without an actual genocide, or even just a cultural genocide, should it be any surprise that Canada has struggled mightily to match its Uygur “refugee” goal?
Nearly $1 million CAD, to help only a few Uygur “refugee”
Canada only bringing in its first Uygur “refugee” in December 2024, when the stated aim was 10,000, would be a major embarrassment on its own.
But the embarrassment was greater than most would realize because, before the first “refugee” entered Canada, The Canada Files discovered a contribution indicating that the CIA-funded URAP had received nearly $1 million CAD to assist Uygur “refugees” who had come to Canada.
After this story broke, Canada’s immigration department tried to hide the contribution from the public and URAP has never answered questions surrounding it.
By this moment—November 2024—zero Uygur “refugees” had been brought to Canada.
Canada’s immigration department further escalated in January 2025 by refusing to provide the final copy of the contribution agreement signed between it and URAP, for the nearly $1 million CAD contribution.
URAP’s Executive Director, Mehmet Tohti, has a questionable past around Uygur refugees. This author earlier explained:
“URAP’s Executive Director, Mehmet Tohti, has previously demanded that Canada allow in Guantanamo prisoner Anvar (Ali) Hassan, a then 34-year-old who ‘fled China to live and train in a camp in Afghanistan in 2001’ and was ‘later caught in the hills of Pakistan,’ who ‘admitted to military training in Afghanistan’ with the motivation of fighting the ‘oppressive Chinese government.’”
Tohti was also a co-founder of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), another CIA-funded organization, serving twice as vice president, and currently is an elected director of the Legal Committee for WUC.
To this day, what URAP has done with the nearly $1 million CAD, given that only a few refugees have come to Canada, is still an open question.
And as such, it is no wonder that Canada would be so interested in getting some of the 48 Uygurs in detention in Thailand, almost all now deported back to China.
Given how determined Canada is to boost URAP and other anti-China separatists—by funding them, showing them off at a conference, and helping them network with each other, and defending them when sanctioned by China—Canada would want to get more Uygur “refugees” into the country to show “progress” in its ‘refugee saving’ program, while also easing the pressure on URAP to answer questions on how the money they have been given is being spent.
Are these Canadian shenanigans against China in the ordinary citizens’ interest? Of course not. But the imperial machine has its mind made up to go after China, and the citizens’ interest is of little concern to Canada’s government.
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About the Author
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, an independent media group. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
He can be reached at aidanjonah.canadafiles@gmail.com.
