Truth vs. lies

— 05.16.2023 11:54 AM

 


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My latest: China’s tentacles

— 05.10.2023 07:02 AM

It’s nothing new. It’s not unique. And it’s not just something that happens in federal politics.

Chinese mauling of our democracy, and democratic institutions, that is. What has been reported in the media about the Chinese regime — that it deliberately and repeatedly sought to influence the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, and targeted a former cabinet minister for attacks — is well known.

Less known, however, are China’s attempts to do likewise at other levels of government, right across Canada.

In Vancouver, for instance, the Chinese consulate aggressively and regularly interfered in the city’s municipal election races. They’d do that using “proxies” — Manchurian candidates, in effect — grooming and deploying their shills in city election contests.

That revelation — which is fact, not conjecture — was found in a January 2022 report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which stated that the Chinese consul-general “groomed” candidates in B.C. to illicitly do Beijing’s bidding.

The report prompted the province’s premier to demand a briefing by CSIS, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — arguably Beijing’s best friend in the G7 — dismissed it all as “little bits and pieces of uncorroborated, unverified information.”

On that occasion, Trudeau resisted the temptation to label the CSIS report as “racist.” But Trudeau and his more obsequious MPs have used that canard on other occasions. So, too, the campaign of Olivia Chow, now seeking Toronto’s mayoralty — when asked about her relationship with Chinese front organizations.

Chow, who is usually a fair-minded person, shouldn’t ever make such an accusation. As she should know, China hasn’t just targeted federal politicians. It has sought to influence lesser levels of government, too. Even at the school board level.

That’s certainly what is alleged to happen at the level of Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). And reports about China’s meddling with the TDSB were followed by high-level resignations and recriminations.

As long ago as 2014, TDSB’s chair, Chris Bolton, abruptly resigned after what the Toronto Star then called “a never-ending stream of scandals” during Bolton’s tenure. “The timing of his resignation [was] questionable,” the Star reported — and China was one of those scandals.

When Bolton resigned, The Globe and Mail reported: “The news of his departure also comes just days before trustees are set to vote Wednesday on whether the TDSB should pursue its controversial partnership with the Chinese government. Mr. Bolton was the driving force behind the school board’s Confucius Institute.”

The “Institute,” which has been around for nearly two decades, has been the focus of controversy and opposition across democracies. Essentially, credible reports link the Confucius Institute to military and industrial espionage, including in Western educational institutions.

Former CSIS director Richard Fadden said that the Confucius Institute is “managed by people operating out of the embassy or consulates” and tasked with suppressing criticisms of Beijing.

After hundreds of parents signed a petition objecting to the presence of the Confucius institute in TDSB classrooms, Bolton hurriedly offered his resignation. One later report found no wrongdoing by him — but the author of the report was the TDSB itself.

Summarizing the scandals that had beset the TDSB, the Globe editorialized: “[Bolton] showed a stunning lack of judgment in striking an agreement with the Chinese government to offer Chinese language and cultural programs, subsidized and controlled by the non-democratic government in Beijing. Despite its innocuous name, the Confucius Institute functions as little more than a long arm of the Chinese state, pushing its political agenda under the guise of simple language instruction.”

And that, at the end, is the reality: China muscling into our democracy — even at the granular level of a school board. China’s regime is a multi-headed hydra, increasingly, its tentacles slinking into our institutions from coast to coast. No target is too small for Chinese manipulations, it seems.

Justin Trudeau and Olivia Chow may claim otherwise.

But they should know better.


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My latest: the betrayal of the Chong family

— 05.03.2023 04:56 PM

 

It’s a bigger scandal.

The harm facing Michael Chong’s family, that is. And it’s arguably bigger than the Aga Khan, SNC-Lavalin and the WE “charity” scandals.

Each of those previous Trudeau government scandals was, ultimately, about money and graft. At the sordid, seamy centre of each of those was something that could be quantified with dollar signs.

Aga Khan was about a lobbyist supplying the Prime Minister of Canada with lavish gifts, contrary to every ethics rule extant. SNC-Lavalin was about Trudeau and his circle obstructing justice, and pressuring prosecutors to go easy on a Liberal Party donor facing corruption charges.

And the WE scandal, of course, was about money – hundreds of thousands of dollars – landing in the pockets of Trudeau family members, and a lucrative contract then going to WE.

So why is the Michael Chong story more of a scandal?

Forget, for a moment, that Chong is an MP, and an effective Opposition Member. At the end of the day, he is a Canadian citizen, one who – like all of us – deserves to be protected by his country’s government.

So, too, his family. It’s important to know that some of Chong’s family, on his father’s side, still live in Hong Kong. And, now, we know that the Chongs have been targeted for harassment, intimidation, and threats by the Chinese regime – which is corrupt, brutal, and regularly abuses human rights.

It is because they abuse human rights – Muslims, specifically – that Michael Chong condemned China in the House of Commons. China’s dictatorship thereafter barred the long-serving MP and former cabinet minister from travelling to China.

So what, one might say. Being reproached by China is truly a badge of honor, these days. But China went a step further, and put together a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats against the Chong family.

And here is where the real scandal is revealed. Justin Trudeau and some within his government knew all that. They were briefed about what China planned for the Chongs.

And Trudeau said, and did, nothing. He didn’t warn the Chongs, or try and get them out of Hong Kong.

Since the story broke in the pages of Globe and Mail, TruAnon winged monkeys have been swarming social media, actually claiming that Michael Chong wasn’t really, truly threatened because he didn’t know about the threats until he read them in a newspaper.

That is deeply dishonest, and it is idiotic. And it ignores the obvious and real scandal: that the Prime Minister of Canada knew what the Chongs were facing, and did nothing.

What if one of them had been beaten? What if one of them had been killed? What if something has, in fact, happened, and don’t even know about it yet? That is why it feels worse than any previous scandal.

Trudeau knows it is one, too. That is why he scrambled to meet with Chong on Tuesday, bringing along his ineffectual national security advisor and Canadian Security Intelligence Service director. But that meeting took place long, long after the fact. Too late.

So, we have to ask, why? Why would Trudeau not warn Michael Chong about what he knew? Was it because Chong is a Conservative who criticizes him? Perhaps.

More likely it is this: the Trudeau Foundation illicitly received thousands from a Chinese front company, to influence his decision-making. His brother, Sacha, was apparently personally involved in that “gift,” and is finally testifying on his role in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

So, at the end, this scandal – which is worse than all the others, because it is about human lives being placed at risk – also involves graft and money.

When investigating a scandal, follow the money, they always say.

And, every single time, it leads you back to the Trudeau family, doesn’t it?


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