“Canada’s China Class”

Kovrig is a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group and a former Canadian diplomat, but he is best known to Canadians as one of the “two Michaels” who were detained by Chinese authorities in 2018, in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport on a U.S. extradition request.

“I was detained by state security officers when I was coming back from dinner and they abducted me and held me hostage for 1,019 days,” said Kovrig. “I spent about nearly six months in solitary confinement, being relentlessly interrogated, and then another two years in a detention centre, confined to a single cell.

To discern how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government sees Canada’s place in a radically changed world, the federal budget tabled this week won’t help you as much as you might think. There’s a lot there — the budget’s $78.3-billion deficit is the third highest in Canadian history — but what’s not there may give you a better idea. How Canada is seen in the big, weird outside world — that too has utterly changed.

Recent statements from Ottawa that frame Canada as being in a “strategic partnership” with China land against a record of cyber operations, foreign interference, coercive finance, and alignment with other authoritarian actors. NATO texts, Five Eyes advisories, and U.S. trade negotiations will show how allies and markets are reacting to Ottawa’s words.

A clear course on Canada’s part requires definition, verification, and visible enforcement.

OTTAWA — In his striking conclusion to Under Assault, former national-security analyst Dennis Molinaro reveals that U.S. government sources have privately described Canada as “overrun” with Chinese influence — the ultimate consequence of a fifty-year pattern, begun under Pierre Trudeau and seemingly accelerated by his son, of engaging the Chinese Communist Party on its own terms and to the detriment of Canadian sovereignty.

It’s a finding that resonates sharply as Justin Trudeau’s successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney renews deeper ties with Beijing amid Washington’s intensifying, security-driven tariff pressure on its allies.

h/t Handy n’ Handsome

Canada has provided more than $100 million in foreign aid to China since 2015, with the Department of Foreign Affairs saying the funding promoted “sustainable development.”

Blacklock’s Reporter says a briefing note for the Minister of International Development stated the money supported “key foreign policy priorities in China including human rights, gender equality, sustainable development and climate change.”

We are lead by Grifters.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney aims to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid a U.S. trade war, a former diplomat who spent more than a thousand days imprisoned in China is warning Ottawa to remember the threat China poses to Canada.

As then-Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault faced questions about his travel to China in 2023 amid reports of widespread interference by Beijing in Canada’s internal affairs, he said engagement with China was needed to tackle climate change.

Last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney also had words of praise for China on net-zero initiatives, saying on Sept. 22, “In my experience with China, they are, amongst other things, very sincere and engaged on climate.”

Anand says Canada is in a ‘strategic partnership’ with China

OTTAWA – Just three years after Canada called China a “disruptive global power,” Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada now views Beijing as a strategic partner in a dangerous world.

Anand told The Canadian Press on Monday that a strategic partnership with China means going beyond allowing individual irritants to strain the entire relationship and permitting Canada to advance its economic and security interests.