Key legislation aimed at fighting forced organ harvesting is now awaiting the third and final reading in the House of Commons before it can become law, with parliamentarians expressing optimism that the bill will finally be passed after 15 years of legislative efforts.
Bill S-223, introduced by Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee review on Nov. 24 and was automatically returned to the House earlier this week.
“I’m pleased to share that Bill S-223 has now passed committee in the House without amendment, which means we just need to get through third reading and it will become law,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told reporters at a press conference on Nov. 30.
Genuis, who is his party’s shadow minister for international development, said a third reading is set to take place on Dec. 5, and that he is “very optimistic that this bill will pass before the Christmas break.”
“Exciting developments that we’re hopeful are able to finally finish this [legislation] after 15 years, to bring in place a law that will protect victims of forced organ harvesting and trafficking.”
Bill S-223 would make it a criminal offence for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to go abroad to receive an organ taken from someone who did not give informed consent. It would also amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to prevent a permanent resident or foreign national from entering Canada if they have engaged in activities relating to human organ trafficking.
Ataullahjan said Canada is “lagging behind” some of its allies that have already passed similar legislation to ban the crimes. The senator previously indicated that over 100 countries have some form of legislation banning the trade of organs.
“We are lagging behind some of our allies, who, when I’m travelling abroad, are quite surprised to know that Canada still does not have legislation against organ harvesting,” she said on Nov. 30.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to raise awareness about the Chinese regime's brutal persecution of the spritual practice, including forced organ harvesting, in New York on May 13, 2022. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)
Ataullahjan had introduced similar legislation three times, including S-204, put forth in December 2019. That bill died after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in 2020, ceasing all legislative businesses.
The first piece of legislation aimed at fighting human organ trafficking was proposed by former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj back in 2008. His Bill C-500 was introduced in February of that year but died when Parliament was dissolved. In 2009, he made a second attempt with Bill C-381, which also died when Parliament was dissolved.
In 2013, then-Liberal MP Irwin Cotler introduced similar legislation, Bill C-561, which also failed to become law. After Cotler retired, Genuis re-introduced the legislation as Bill C-350 in the 42nd Parliament.
All three MPs said their efforts to fight the crimes of organ harvesting were inspired by a 2006 report, co-authored by human rights lawyer David Matas and the late Canadian MP David Kilgour. The report, later culminating into a book titled “Bloody Harvest,” was initiated to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal organ harvesting campaign against adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, whose members were reportedly jailed, tortured, and killed on a large scale for their organs.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation discipline rooted in Buddhist traditions that include moral teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—principles regarded as a threat to communist ideology by former CCP leader Jiang Zemin. In July 1999, Jiang launched a nationwide persecution campaign aimed at eradicating the practice, which had attracted around 100 million Chinese adherents, according to government estimates. The ongoing persecution continues today.
“Evidence points to organ harvesting in China where Falun Gong practitioners suffer unspeakable horrors,” Cotler said when introducing his bill in the House of Commons back in 2013.
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