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MARCH FOR UYGHURS
10-21-2020
The United Nations estimate that up to 3 Million Uyghurs are being held in Concentration Camps in China Occupied East Turkestan. The Chinese government has targeted Uyghur Muslims and other religious minorities in these camps to ethnically cleanse the Uyghur people and their culture. Like the holocaust, it is a genocide.
The Uyghurs are subject to forced labour, torture, forced abortion on women, forced sterilization, sexual abuse, rape, murder, waterboarding, injections of unknown substances, repeated beatings, forced to denounce their faiths, being fed poorly, murder and recent reports of organ harvesting.
So, we decided to take action and marched for the Uyghur brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers on October 18, 2020. The March began at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 12 pm. We then proceeded to March all the way to the Consulate General for China. We Marched this 4 km distance by foot and crossed the Granville Street bridge by foot. We had members from the Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Muslim, and Philippino community join us. Several politicians also joined our March.
Thank you to everyone that was not afraid to speak up and march with us.
We can proudly say that we reached over 9,500 people via our social media campaign and had a record turnout for the March for Uyghurs event. We had many youth come and show support which was a beautiful sight because the youth are capable of change. The organizers of this event were a part of the youth as well. Unfortunately, there were many disappointments along the way especially when the British Columbia Muslim Association (BCMA) and Pakistan Canada Association (PCA) refused to support the Uyghur Muslims and the March For Uyghurs event. Rehman Solehria (Volunteer) who had reached out to these organizations, and who was a Pakistani Muslim, felt confused by the position that these supposedly righteous organizations had taken. But the youth united and propelled this march to a success.
There is hope because of supporters like them and the youth that gave us their time and attention.
BUT, the job is not finished. The efforts to help the Uyghur Muslims can continue in the following ways:
- Contact your Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to make them aware of the situation.
- Demand your politicians for Canada to place Economic Sanctions on China.
- Boycott companies like Apple, Samsung, Zara, Amazon, Nike, Adidas etc. for using Forced Uyghur Labour. The full list of companies can be found at saveuighur.org
On behalf of the Vancouver Uyghur Association and many more, ThanK You! “
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