Canada

Canadian plywood makers seek duties as cheap Chinese rivals carve out half the market

It’s been years since Carlos Zarate and others in Canada’s decorative plywood industry started telling the federal government about a growing problem in their business.

The president of the Canadian Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association warns of an industry in decline, but not due to falling demand for things like kitchen cabinets, decorative wood panels, furniture, and other non-structural wood products.

Zarate, who’s also president of Industrie Ergie Inc. in Victoriaville, Que., said the association’s members have seen their market share in Canada drop because they are unable to compete with plywood products imported from China at prices domestic producers could never hope to match, let alone beat.

Yet another example of Trudeau serving the interests of the China Class.

Canada’s politicians need to be more proactive to responding to foreign interference by establishing a “national security culture” within the government to recognize threats when they emerge, former intelligence and security officials say.

While they believe institutions like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are equipped to respond to national security issues — though underfunded — very few people outside those agencies are experienced with the issue.

There is a security culture in Ottawa, the LPC is fully cooperative with Communist China.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino concedes there may be new so-called “Chinese police stations” in Canada after saying last month they’d all been shut down, but he insists the RCMP will close any new sites if they do exist.

The Spanish human rights organization Safeguard Defenders said last fall it had identified more than 100 of these alleged Chinese overseas police stations, including several in Canada. The groups says these stations serve to spy on Chinese dissidents in Canada and abroad and collect information about opponents to the regime in Beijing, under the guise of providing resources to Chinese people living abroad.

Could be? That’s the answer you’d expect from a CCP compromised government.

On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melania Joly announced the expulsion of Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, the official from China’s Toronto consulate believed to be responsible for threats against a Canadian MP’s relatives in Hong Kong.

The MP, Conservative Michael Chong, is one of Parliament’s most outspoken critics of the Communist regime’s human rights record. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) two years ago told senior members of the Trudeau government that Zhao was allegedly coordinating intimidation tactics against Chong’s relatives in China in an effort to get Chong to clam up.

The federal government will move forward with the creation of a registry of foreign agents to help prevent China and other countries from meddling in Canada’s affairs, Radio-Canada has confirmed.

As first reported in La Presse, Canada will table a bill either this summer, or if the Justice Department is not able to draft the legislation in time, in the fall, according to a government source.

The federal government launched public consultations on the concept in March. That outreach effort closed May 9 and a government source said it showed Canadians broadly support the initiative.

A former officer with Canada’s spy agency says that individuals involved in the political process should have to declare they will not cooperate with a foreign power, adding that they should serve jail time if caught doing so.

“Because we’re close to treason here, literally,” said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia-Pacific Unit within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).