PANDERING TO THE PANDA
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.
On Nov. 18, a Conservative motion gave Trudeau one month to decide whether to ban Huawei and come up with measures to stop Chinese agents from intimidating Canadians, here and in Hong Kong. But that's not enough.
This month, documents were uncovered by Rebel News, which revealed that the Trudeau government invited Chinese troops to conduct cold-weather training in Ontario last year. Fortunately, Gen. Jonathan Vance, Canada's senior military commander, nixed the idea due to national security concerns.
But the CBC reported that behind the scenes, “the military and diplomats were at odds over the People's Liberation Army training program,” and diplomats were worried the decision to cancel the exercise “might aggravate Beijing.”
In the United States, Sen. Marco Rubio, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, also warned western governments to be wary of doing business with McKinsey because of its alignment with China's establishment. Barton served as its managing director for nine years.
“Unfortunately, Canada is no stranger to the complex influence game McKinsey plays with China,” Rubio said in a statement last week to the Globe and Mail. “Before becoming Canada's ambassador to China, Dominic Barton went from serving on the advisory board of the China Development Bank to running McKinsey's global operations.”
In 2019, the Liberals stonewalled Tory demands that Barton disclose his Chinese client list. McKinsey client confidentiality rules were cited and Barton was forced to put his investments into a blind trust. The New York Times later revealed that McKinsey does business with 22 of China's 100 largest state-owned enterprises, and the firm has gleefully helped raise the stature of the country's communist regime, despite its misdeeds.
Barton was the perfect frontman for the Liberal Beijing boosters who wield much influence in this country. They include former prime minister Jean Chrétien, Sen. Peter Harder, the Desmarais family and its Power Corporation, as well as the Canada China Business Council.
The pro-China business council is chaired by Chrétien's grandson, Olivier Desmarais, and its directors include Scott Brison, a former Liberal cabinet minister, as well as representatives from SNC-Lavalin, the University of Toronto (the biggest issuer of visas to Chinese students), Sun Life, Huawei, Brookfield, CIBC, RBC, Manulife, as well as various Chinese stateowned enterprises and Liberal law firms.
This is why Trudeau hardly ever retaliates against or criticizes China, despite its human rights abuses, invasion of India, trade cheating, patent stealing, hostage-taking and the fact that it is the biggest polluter on the planet, with emissions that are higher than Europe's and America's combined.
This summer, as Trudeau prepared to impose crippling carbon taxes on Canadians, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board invested $141 million in dirty coal plants in China. And this fall, as polls showed Canadians were upset about China, Barton delivered a speech at the University of Alberta's China Institute urging government to emphasize doing business in China.
“The weight of the world is shifting and has shifted toward Asia, so we need to do more in China,” he said.
The Liberals' disconnect between reality and elite self-interest has damaged Canada's reputation and its morale. Serious change is needed — and it needs to start at the top.