A congressional committee on November 16 considered a Senate bill to combat human organ trafficking, but rejected a request for an expedited investigation.
Building S-223sponsored by Senator Salma Atourajan Passed a second reading in the House on November 24, 2021 and is now researched by Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE).
The bill aims to crack down on forced organ harvesting and human trafficking, making it a crime for individuals to go abroad to receive organs from people who have not given informed consent for organ harvesting. We will also amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to prevent permanent residents or aliens from entering Canada if they are engaged in activities related to the trafficking of human organs.
Ataullahjan has submitted a similar bill. Building S-204, in the final session of parliament in December 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau adjourned parliament on 18 August 2020 amid the WE charity ethics controversy, suspending all legislative work that has not passed. The bill only completed its first reading in the Senate.
Prior to Bill S-204, senators also introduced their predecessors, Building S-240, It was unanimously approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives in two parliamentary sessions in October 2017. However, it did not become law as Congress was dissolved ahead of the 2019 federal elections before the latest amendments introduced by members of Congress were approved by the Senate.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who appeared before the committee as a witness on November 16, said the concept of combating human organ trafficking was first proposed by former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj. Building C-500Private Members Bill of February 2008.
In 2013, another former liberal MP, Irwin Kotler, now International Committee Chair Sponsored by the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights Building C-561Its short title was “Trafficking and Transplantation of Human Organs and Other Body Parts,” the Tories noted.
“None of these bills were put to a vote. This process began in 2008, about 15 years ago.”
While testifying about a similar bill before a Senate committee during Congress’ final session in 2021, former Congressman David Kilgour said many countries had already enacted laws to combat organ trafficking. He said it was “embarrassing” that Canada had not enacted a law. There are still such laws.
Kilgour, along with human rights attorney David Matas, published a report in 2006 that concluded that the Chinese Communist regime forced Falun Gong practitioners to harvest their organs and sell their body parts for profit.
Expedited request
Mr. Genuis said that both Ataullahjan’s bills passed the Senate unanimously three times and “the bill has been under extensive consideration for 15 years”, thus the “exactly the same form” of Bill S-233. He said he suggested speeding up the process. as Bill S-240.
“The bill is due, and we will be reviewing it article by article next Wednesday. It added that the board did not investigate bill S-223 until almost six months after its second reading in Congress.
“Because if it were to be considered article by article and then reported to the House, it would have to go through a reporting stage and a third reading. to simply allow it, go straight to the third read [and is] be able to move faster. “
Genuis’ proposal was rejected by liberals, Bloc Quebecois, and NDP legislators, saying that “this is not the same Foreign Affairs Committee as in previous Congresses,” and that the language of bills S-240 and S-233 was “not quite the same.” No,” was cited as the reason. ‘ and the Commission cannot ‘simply put a rubber stamp’, among other reasons.
Genuis acknowledged that there were amendments to bill S-240, but said the version he referenced was the version previously sent to the Senate for approval by the FAAE.
“My understanding is that this [Bill S-233] It’s the same version that passed the House committee,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s a reasonable practice for the Commission to wait until the last possible date of the automatic reporting deadline and then do it on a clause-by-article basis. It appears to be a tactic of delaying the introduction of the bill,” he said.
Noé Chartier and Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.
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Isaac Teo is a Toronto-based reporter for the Epoch Times.