A poll by the Angus-Reid Institute of 5,004 Canadians from Feb. 26 to March 3 has found that opinions of China sit at record lows and that there can be no moving forward until two detained Canadians are released from prison.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested by Chinese authorities on Dec. 10, 2018, shortly after the detention in Canada of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant. Here are the results from the poll.
And no one in the government knew:
Canadian officials are not aware of any new timeline for the trials of two Canadians detained in China, despite reports in China claiming Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig will soon be tried.
In an article published in the Global Times, an English-language paper that effectively functions as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government, a source “close to the matter” is cited saying that the two Canadians have “already been prosecuted.”
“Another source close to the matter told the Global Times previously that due to the COVID-19 epidemic situation, the hearings for both cases have yet to commence, and the court will push forward the trial soon,” the article reads.
But don’t take my word for it.
Blacklock’s Reporter, an Ottawa-based news site focused on government business, reports that Parks Canada will use Mandarin-language services at Bethune Memorial House in Gravenhurst, Ontario as part of a bid to “move visitors, volunteers and partners to act as proud ambassadors of Bethune’s values, achievements and humanitarian ideals” and “introduce Parks Canada to a broader audience, in particular of Chinese descent.” Noting that Bethune’s birthplace is one of Canada’s least-visited national historic sites, it hopes to have it recognized by 2027 as “a place of inspiration.” …
He remained relatively obscure in Canada until former prime minister Pierre Trudeau — who had a soft spot for strongmen like Mao and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro — visited China in 1973. The government bought the Bethune house the same year, turning it over to Parks Canada as a national historic site. Bethune has since become the sort of figure who — like James Naismith or the Mad Trapper of Rat River — gets immortalized in official Canadiana as evidence we do indeed have a fascinating past filled with interesting people.
(Sidebar: quelle surprise.)
The world is now wide awake to communist hostility — coordinated action must follow
Winston Churchill was rebuked as a warmonger when he tried to alert the United States to the immense danger of the Soviet Union with his “Iron Curtain” speech. In March 1946, the USSR was still America’s heroic ally; Stalin was the benign pipe-smoking Uncle Joe who had valiantly defeated the Germans, thereby sparing countless American boys an early death.
But this wilful ignorance was best captured in another call to arms that also celebrates its 75th anniversary this year: that of George F Kennan’s “Long Telegram” on the sources of Soviet conduct, which was received by the State Department in February 1946. Written by Kennan under the pseudonym ‘Mr X’, the Telegram was an attempt to bore through the layers of ignorance, foolish optimism and disinformation spread by local Communists and Soviet sympathisers. He hoped to mobilise his fellow foreign service officers in the State Department and their chiefs, and through them the press and then Congress, to “contain” the further spread of Stalin’s power across Europe. Kennan had to estrange the USSR in order to make his colleagues and the wider world see its threat.
Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt supposedly roasted President John F. Kennedy’s inaction on civil rights by wishing the author of the 1956 Pulitzer-prize-winning Profiles in Courage would show less profile and more courage. A crack that surely also applies to our prime minister, a fearless social justice warrior when there’s nothing to fear but a bit of a coward when the going gets tough. For instance on this Uyghur genocide business.
The big headline in the U.K.’s Guardian Tuesday morning was “Canada votes to recognize China’s treatment of Uyghur population as genocide.” The headline was only slightly expanded in the first sentence of the article, which read in part, “Canada has become the second country in the world to describe China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority as a genocide …”
OTTAWA — Federal MPs are making their case to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to join them in voting to label China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims a genocide ahead of Monday’s House of Commons vote on the matter.
Speaking on CTV’s Question Period with host Evan Solomon, NDP foreign affairs critic Jack Harris said before Canada evaluates the ramifications of the move, the government must “name it for what it is.”
What it is? It’s Justin protecting the China Class weasels.
The heads of security intelligence agencies seldom open up. When they do, it is a sign to pay attention.
Canadians witnessed a very rare event recently. The director of CSIS, David Vigneault, gave a speech – virtually, of course – to the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Ottawa. In this all too infrequent occurrence, he talked about what keeps him up at night as the head of Canada’s premier spy agency.
There should be no surprise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he needs more evidence before concluding China’s horrific treatment of its minority Uyghur Muslim population is a genocide, despite having agreed two years ago that Canada’s treatment of its Indigenous population was a genocide.
As Maya Angelou famously put it: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
It runs much deeper than the idiot within the Liberal Party.
The Liberal chair of the Commons finance committee says a budget recommendation calling on Ottawa to pull out of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should serve as a “wake up and smell the roses” moment for Canada.
Liberal MP Wayne Easter, who also served as solicitor-general under Jean Chrétien in charge of Canada’s security agencies, told The Globe and Mail Tuesday that Canada needs to recognize the serious threat China poses to western democracies. He also criticized the fact that universities are still conducting research projects with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
The finance committee in a report Tuesday made the recommendation to withdraw from the AIIB, which the Trudeau government joined in 2017, with plans to contribute US$995-million.
It should be all MP’s period. The China class is well embedded in our political class.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada must make sure “all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed” before citing China for genocide.
“The primary concern we have as a government that has always been responsible about using this extremely loaded term is not applying it to things that don’t meet the very clear, internationally-recognized criteria around genocide,” said Trudeau at a press conference.
If you’re wondering what it would take for the Trudeau administration to get over its crush on Chinese communism, I have no idea. Especially once we learned that despite everything, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is doing its best to pour our industrial secrets into the Politburo’s pockets via … wait for it … Huawei. And by “despite everything” I mean massive evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s hostility to human rights and decency, including putting history’s worst mass killer on their banknotes in case anyone was struggling with the concept of “brutal communist dictatorship and loving it.
This is Globalism, Canada’s China class is hard at work.
Amid growing calls for a tougher Canadian stance toward China, outgoing Nova Scotia Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil had some provocative advice recently, suggesting politicians here should actually avoid reproaching Beijing.
The federal government is grappling with China’s imprisonment of two Canadians, a clampdown on political freedoms in Hong Kong and the sweeping suppression of the country’s Uyghur minority.
Gee, I wonder who greased his palms?
You have to wonder how often knowledgeable people need to attest that China’s is a dangerous, predatory and untrustworthy government before the fact of it begins to sink in and action is taken.
Yet as warnings go, you don’t get more authoritative or plain-spoken than the one issued by David Vigneault, head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, during an online forum.
