OTTAWA — Immigration Canada has granted the husband and two children of detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou COVID-19 travel exemptions to visit her in Vancouver.
Meng’s lawyers stated in court Tuesday that her husband Liu Xiaozong and two children applied for the exemption to travel from China at the end of 2020. Liu arrived in October and was followed by the children in December. They remain in Canada.
Canadians cry – “More punishment, please!”:
Taxpayers have paid pandemic relief to five banks operating in Canada including branches of the state-run Bank of China Ltd. The Prime Minister’s Office did not comment: “It’s not good news for anyone if local businesses have to close shop.”
China still owes Canada $371 million in decades-old debt
China still owes Canada $371 million in loans it incurred decades ago, and is not expected to repay them in full until 2045.
The little-known debt comes from loans to Beijing through the Canada Account, a federal fund providing credit for export-related transactions, usually to foreign governments and corporations to secure the purchase of Canadian goods, such as commercial planes.
The account is used to support transactions deemed too risky for Export Development Canada’s corporate account, but which are still in the national interest, as determined by the federal minister of International Trade.
This is so Canadian. Crony capitalists reap the profit of sales to the Communist Chinese slave state but it’s lowly tax payers who assume all the financial risk.
As a global pandemic began to take root in February, China held a series of backchannel conversations with Canada, lobbying the federal government to keep its borders open.
With the virus already taking a deadly toll in Asia, Heng Xiaojun, the Minister Counsellor for the Chinese embassy, requested a call with senior Transport Canada officials. Over the course of the conversation, the Chinese representatives communicated Beijing’s desire that flights between the two countries not be stopped because it was unnecessary.
“The Chinese position on the continuation of flights was reiterated,” say official notes taken from the call. “Mr. Heng conveyed that China is taking comprehensive measures to combat the coronavirus.”
Canadian officials seemed to agree, since no steps were taken to restrict or prohibit travel. To the federal government, China appeared to have the situation under control and the risk to Canada was low. Before ending the call, Mr. Heng thanked Ottawa for its “science and fact-based approach.”
Looks like the Globe released this from the paywall. Interesting but distressing read of our ruling class at work.
h/t CT
I’m old enough, just barely, to remember watching Paul Henderson score his winning goal against the Soviets in the final game of the 1972 Summit Series. I knew that something important had happened, but I didn’t fully understand what it was until much later. Yes, it was hockey, and our national pride was at stake, but there was more to it than that. Team Canada was fighting for our way of life against an adversary that sought to tear it down. The United States was the standard flag bearer in conflicts with the Soviets, but in September 1972 the Canadians were combatants in the Cold War.
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is taking aim at what he describes as China’s unpredictability, refusal to play by the rules and expanding footprint around the world, saying those are among the “significant” concerns Canada and its allies have with Beijing.
The comments come amid growing alarm over China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, which has led Canadian military commanders and others to increasingly focus on what is being described as the next great power competition.
Due to a paralyzing lack of fecundity in Canadian foreign policy thinking, there seems to be among certain policymakers and commentators a tendency to make multilateralism into something like a religion. No matter the merits of an institution, if it is “multilateral” it is virtuous, and Canada must be uncritically involved in it.
Never happen. Canada’s China Class loves its 30 pieces of silver.
Dominic Barton’s appointment as Canadian ambassador to China last year was inappropriate because he, and the firm he worked at for much of his life, McKinsey & Company, have been unabashed fanboys of the People’s Republic of China for years.
Pandering to the panda is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy toward China has failed. Billions of dollars worth of contract breaches by China remain unaddressed, two innocent Canadian businessmen remain political hostages and the Chinese government’s rhetoric toward Canada has become toxic.
The CBC sat down with one of their masters, a Trudeau cabinet minister named Franky Champagne to tell the real truth about Trudeau’s China Boys.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed his support for Dominic Barton on Tuesday when he was asked about whether the ambassador to Beijing knew anything about the opioid sales boost advice that McKinsey & Co provided Purdue Pharma during his leadership tenure.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trudeau was asked about Barton’s role in, and whether he had knowledge of McKinsey’s work in boosting the sales of drug oxycontin, which pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma made when he was with the consulting firm.
A top foreign affairs official says China’s history of lashing out means that “sensitive matters” in a long-running espionage case before Canada’s courts should be kept away from public discussion.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to seal documents and close coming courtroom hearings in the criminal case of Qing Quentin Huang, an Ontario shipbuilder who was charged in 2013 with violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly trying to communicate Canadian naval secrets to China.
Information about Canada’s winter survival military training with China has been in the public sphere for some years but only drew heightened attention after recent media coverage.
A February 2018 tweet by the Canadian Army shows Canadian soldiers participating in winter training in China with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and Canada extending an invitation to China to take part in the same training in Petawawa, Ont., at a future date. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said during question period on Dec. 10 that the engagement was part of a cooperation initiative signed with China back in 2013.
PM invites China’s army for “cold weather training” in Canada – while China holds Canadians captive.
December 10 marked two years since China’s Communist regime seized Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. “These two Canadians are an absolute priority for our government,” Canadian foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters, “and we will continue to work tirelessly to secure their immediate release and to stand up for them as a government and as Canadians.” According to another story that broke last week, the government’s true priority is to ignore the captives and stand up for China.
A troop of Chinese nationals are training to become pilots at a decommissioned Canadian military base near Red Deer, Alberta. After receiving several tips suggesting that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was actively training military personnel at the former CFB Penhold, Rebel News visited the location to investigate.
Let’s start with one certainty: The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) should not be training China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in winter warfare tactics, particularly on Canadian soil. Period.
That’s the scandal in the revelation this week by online news site Rebel News and by the Globe and Mail that elements of the Trudeau government were at odds with one another over whether to cancel joint training exercises between the CAF and PLA at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, near Ottawa, in the winter of 2019.
