Carney says Liberal MP Michael Ma remains in caucus after comments on China’s forced labour

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Liberal MP Michael Ma continues to be part of his party’s caucus, after the floor-crossing MP apologized for his comments last week that cast doubt on China’s forced labour practices.

“Mr. Ma has apologized for his comments and directly and unequivocally recognized the seriousness of the issue, continues to be a member of our caucus, and I’ll continue to work with him,” said Carney, during a housing and infrastructure announcement in Toronto on Monday.

On Thursday, during a House of Commons industry committee meeting, retired senior bureaucrat Margaret McCuaig-Johnston cited a 2024 report by Human Rights Watch that “dozens of parts in each Chinese EV are made with aluminium from Uyghur forced labour.”

United Nations experts have continued to express deep concern regarding persistent allegations of forced labour affecting Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz minority groups as well as Tibetans within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and across other parts of China.

In 2021, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion recognizing the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim groups.

Ma pressed McCuaig-Johnston’s claims, saying “have you witnessed this yourself?”

Ma issued a statement on Thursday evening, apologizing for his comments, but did not comment about reports of forced labour in China specifically.

When asked whether he believes there is forced labour in China, Carney only said there is evidence of the practice around the world.

“I followed this issue over the years in China and elsewhere, and there is evidence of child labour around the world,” said Carney.

The prime minister said Canadian companies must comply with laws that are against forced or child labour in any element of the supply chain of goods that are imported into Canada.

“There are parts of China that are higher risk and therefore need to be diligence,” he added.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down U.S. tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has launched investigations into 60 economies under Section 301(b) of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, including Canada’s, to determine whether they have failed to impose or enforce bans on imports produced with forced labour.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is scheduled to travel to China this week to follow up on Carney’s visit to Beijing in January, which marked the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in eight years.

During that visit, Carney struck a deal allowing 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to be imported into Canada annually at a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent, in exchange for the lowering of Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola exports.

Carney said supply chain integrity issues will be on the agenda during the finance minister’s trip.

“Issues of supply chain integrity, including forced labour, child labour, and ensuring that those standards are in place will be part of those discussions, I’m certain” Carney told reporters.

“And ensuring that we have the adequate transparency for any good from any of our trade partners.”

When asked whether he still planned to attend a party fundraiser in Markham hosted by Ma on Monday evening, Carney would not comment.

“This is a government event, though, so I don’t want to speak about party specific things around fundraising,” he said.

With files from Christopher Nardi

National Post

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.