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The gulf between Canada and China on human rights is vast. This isn’t something that normally needs pointing out, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, insisting he put the boots to the Chinese government over rights during his visit, seems confused.

Trudeau says he raised the issue in the context of indigenous rights at home, noting that Canada had been publicly criticized by a UN rapporteur for the state of our aboriginal population. “(I) talked about the challenges, but also talked about the fact that Canada is not immune to criticisms on humanrights, either,” he told an interviewer in Hong Kong.

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Such exercises in moral equivalence are dangerous, and inaccurate.

China “systematically curtails a wide range of fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion,” says Human Rights Watch. It also bans peaceful groups such as Falun Gong, and uses the death penalty with impunity while keeping official numbers quiet, according to Amnesty International.