(Montreal) A Canadian senator denounces the stigmatization of two Montreal community organizations accused by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of hosting secret police stations of the Chinese government.
Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo told reporters on Friday that the RCMP must present evidence against both groups.
Mr. Woo made the comments during a press conference with members of Montreal’s Chinese community at the office of one of the groups targeted by the police, Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal.
In mid-March, the RCMP said that the organization, along with the Center Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud, located on the South Shore of Montreal, harbored Chinese government agents who allegedly harassed members of the Chinese community in the city.
Mr. Woo, an independent senator representing British Columbia, says neither he nor the groups being investigated by the RCMP know the details of what they are charged with.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told a parliamentary committee last week that the RCMP had closed so-called police stations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders, which has identified more than 100 of the alleged police stations in more than 50 countries, said the stations are used to “persuade” people who Chinese authorities believe are fugitives returning to China to face charges.
