TRUDEAU FIDDLES AROUND AS CHINA BURNS CANADA
Diane Francis implores government to crack down on country's aggression.
Last month marked the 50th anniversary of official relations between Canada and China, which were initiated by the prime minister's late father, Pierre Trudeau. This week, the Conservatives introduced a motion that will hopefully force the government to finally start holding China accountable by giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 30 days to make a decision on Huawei and crack down on Chinese aggression.
“There is no greater threat today to Canada's interest than China's rise,” warned Conservative Leader Erin O'toole. “The democratic world must acknowledge that the approach to China over the last two decades has not worked. In fact, the situation has gotten worse … with catastrophic impacts for Canadian workers.”
There have also been attempts to co-opt, threaten and influence
Chinese students, media and residents in Canada by Chinese consulates, Confucius Institutes and others.
The same problems have occurred in the United States, but American authorities have laid charges against those who have intimidated human rights protesters on their soil, according to O'toole, who added, “When was the last time that happened here?”
A former military officer, O'toole articulated the root of the problem: “The democratic world is watching for Canada to see if Mr. Trudeau is going to finally get serious with China from a security, human rights and a trade perspective, or is he still going to have this naive admiration for the basic dictatorship?”
Worse, Canada has broken with its allies and “is the only Five-eye country that has not banned Huawei from its network,” he said.
China has held two innocent Canadians hostage since 2018, as payback for the arrest of a Huawei executive on a U.S. extradition warrant.
China has also abrogated billions in agricultural trade contracts with Canada. Yet the prime minister ignores the fact that four out of five Canadians want actions taken against China for these and other misdeeds.
Canada has wimped out due to a phenomenon known as
The rest of the democratic world realizes that China is an enemy of the West and yet Canada sits on the sidelines.
“elite capture,” a form of corruption whereby public resources benefit a few individuals of superior social status, in detriment to the welfare of the larger population. Since Pierre Trudeau's recognition of China 50 years ago, Liberals have fawned over Beijing, which has, in turn, groomed Canada's Liberal, banking and business elite through political donations, business deals, honours, trips and special access.
Canada's captured elite have given China a free pass, despite its transgressions, and now threatens to turn Canada into a geopolitical outlier.
The rest of the democratic world realizes that China is
an enemy of the West and yet Canada sits on the sidelines.
This is the same group of elites who ignored evidence that Chinese hackers harvested technology developed by the now-defunct Canadian telecommunications champion Nortel, and that Huawei's systems pose a security threat.
“Huawei represents a danger and the evidence is clear,” said Quebec Conservative Pierre Paul-hus, also a former military officer, in Parliament.
“Thirty days is a reasonable time frame. We should have the answer today. You've had more than enough time.”
Trudeau has ducked China
issues because he is surrounded by a cadre of China whisperers led by former prime minister Jean Chrétien, whose protege is Trudeau's current foreign affairs minister, François-philippe Champagne.
That's the minister who borrowed more than $1 million from the Bank of China to buy two London apartments, then switched banks after the press caught wind of it.
He should have resigned.
But he didn't. And, symbolically, in Parliament this week, the government's pussyfooting on China was defended by Champagne, not Pierre Trudeau's son.