MONTREAL — A Canadian senator is denouncing the stigmatization of two Montreal-area community organizations that have been accused by the RCMP of hosting secret Chinese government police stations.
Independent Sen. Yuen Pau Woo told reporters today that the RCMP must come forward with evidence against these two groups.
Woo made the comments during a news conference with members of Montreal's Chinese community at the office of one of the groups targeted by the police, Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montreal.
In mid-March the RCMP said that the organization, along with Centre Sino-Quebec de la Rive-Sud, located on Montreal's South Shore, hosted Chinese government agents who allegedly harassed members of the city's Chinese community.
Woo, an Independent senator representing British Columbia, says neither he nor the groups under RCMP investigation know the details of what they are being accused of.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a parliamentary committee last week that the RCMP had shut down the so-called police stations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
The Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, which has identified more than 100 of the alleged police stations in more than 50 countries, has said the stations serve to "persuade'' people who Chinese authorities claim are fugitives to return to China to face charges.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.
The Canadian Press
