Canada and the West Cannot Ignore Việt Nam’s Human Rights Record

In September 2026, Communist Party General Secretary and President Tô Lâm arrived in Ottawa to officially elevate bilateral ties with Canada to a Strategic Partnership. Unsurprisingly, mainstream Canadian media and official joint statements predictably showered this occasion with mountains of praise. 

Canada is not alone in offering such applause. Throughout the year, Hà Nội secured an array of other pacts, including a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the European Union, an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with India,  and an Enhanced Strategic Partnership with the Philippines. Furthermore, Việt Nam elevated diplomatic ties with Czechia, Finland, Bulgaria, and Belarus. Việt Nam and Canada touted the C$20.6 billion ($14.95 billion) in merchandise trade, expanded air transport agreements for direct commercial flights, and deepened collaboration across artificial intelligence, clean energy, and Trans-Pacific trade integration. 

However, underneath all the rehearsed and choreographed press releases lies a deliberate, glaring omission. Almost everyone in official circles is willfully ignoring the dismal and appalling human rights record of Việt Nam. In their eagerness to secure supply chains and build a middle-power coalition, Western leaders are treating Việt Nam’s authoritarian crackdowns and flagrant human rights violations as inconvenient details best swept under the rug.

Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

Recent commentary displays this wave of collective amnesia in full force. Writing for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Hon. Bryon Wilfert, former Canadian Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, passionately argues that Canada must “seize the Vietnam opportunity.” He frames the massive trade imbalance—importing $14.7 billion from Việt Nam while exporting only $1 billion in 2024—as a direct call to action for Canadian exports in clean tech, liquefied natural gas, nuclear technology, and artificial intelligence.

In the same publication, Julie Nguyen, chair of Canada-ASEAN Initiatives at York University, romanticizes the partnership as middle-power synergy. She asserts that by leveraging the 275,000-strong Vietnamese diaspora in Canada, both nations can build mutual resilience against tariff anxieties and economic coercion from superpowers like the United States and China. 

Both individuals offer solid economic arguments, but their analysis suffers from a deliberate and obvious blind spot. Neither commentator addresses the massive elephant in the room or devotes even a sliver of attention to the human rights abuses unfolding in Việt Nam. 

These experts cannot claim ignorance; they know all the details very intimately. Yet they conveniently play it safe by avoiding any mention of state-sponsored repression. They remain conspicuously silent about President Tô Lâm previously serving as the Minister of Public Security, the primary architect of the police state that ruthlessly silences peaceful dissent in Việt Nam. 

By treating trade statistics as the sole metric of national success, they bestow much-needed credence to an authoritarian regime and sanitize ongoing repression.

Domestic Crackdowns and Extraterritorial Overreach

Việt Nam cements its status as one of the most severe prisons for journalists globally, ranking 174th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index according to Reporters Without Borders. 

Renowned independent writers like Phạm Đoan Trang languish behind bars serving a nine-year sentence for “anti-state propaganda,” while the authorities handed Phạm Chí Dũng a 15-year sentence simply for petitioning the European Parliament to condition trade ratification on human rights guarantees. Simultaneously, the state has brought media outlets directly under central party control to crush any remaining semblance of a free press.

The hypocrisy embedded in Việt Nam’s celebrated green transition is equally breathtaking. International donors enthusiastically pour $15.5 billion into the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to help Hà Nội phase out coal. Yet, Vietnamese authorities ruthlessly hunt down the very environmental advocates who championed these net-zero pledges. They slapped environmental lawyer Đặng Đình Bách with a five-year prison sentence on fabricated tax evasion charges for attempting to monitor environmental compliance. 

Adding injury to insult, this transition is anything but just for working-class Vietnamese citizens; an estimated 77,000 to 111,000 coal miners in Quảng Ninh face imminent job losses without dedicated retraining funds or social safety nets.

Perhaps most damning of all is how Việt Nam exports its repression across international borders, a reality documented in report A/HRC/63/62 from the United Nations Human Rights Council. This report details a disturbing pattern of transnational repression. Việt Nam weaponizes counter-terrorism laws to label foreign nationals, exile groups, and diaspora human rights organizations—such as Boat People SOS (BPSOS) and Montagnards Stand for Justice (MSFJ)—as terrorist entities. 

Hà Nội also routinely abuses international criminal cooperation and extradition mechanisms to hunt down dissidents abroad. In late 2025, for instance, Thailand extradited the UNHCR-recognized refugee and Montagnard activist Y Quỳnh Bđăp back to Việt Nam, where the authorities coerced him into giving a live confession on national television.

True Partnership Requires Accountability

Can democratic nations honestly trust a government as a credible, rules-based partner when it routinely weaponizes terrorism labels against peaceful human rights defenders abroad? 

Elevating diplomatic ties must never mean casting human rights by the wayside. By eagerly signing trade deals while turning a blind eye to jailed journalists, persecuted environmentalists, and transnational abductions, democratic governments become complicit in state-sponsored repression.

Việt Nam consistently breaks its human rights commitments. 

If middle powers like Canada genuinely wish to foster a stable international order, they must muster the courage to demand binding human rights conditions, the release of political prisoners, and an end to transnational repression.

True partnership requires accountability. Without it, strategic elevation becomes an empty title nailed to the backs of silenced citizens.