The beast we keep feeding ...
December 2020 emails at Global Affairs Canada, obtained by Global News under access to information law, state that officials were aware that some types of foreign influence in Canadian politics slipped through the cracks of existing laws. Examples in the documents include foreign investment in university research, as well as “communications activities” to promote foreign agendas.
Canadian intelligence officials and Parliament’s national security committee have cautioned for years that foreign governments – most notably China, Russia, and Iran – are actively trying to influence Canadian affairs. Some of this activity is overt, while other influence operations remain in the shadows.
The documents reviewed by Global News were part of preparations for a House of Commons speech by former Global Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on the issue of Chinese interference in Canadian politics.
(Sidebar: this Champagne.)
The speech, drafted for a December late debate in the House of Commons at the prompting of the opposition Conservatives, originally suggested existing laws were sufficient to curb foreign influence. But an objection from a foreign affairs bureaucrat – their name was censored in the documents – cautioned that wasn’t true.
“There are several situations not covered by the Lobbying Act and the Conflict of Interest Act, such as for instance an agent undertaking communication activity or engaging in a big disbursement of activities on behalf of a foreign government,” the email reads.
“Some of these activities would be covered if happening under election periods by the Canada Elections Act, but foreign interference is not limited to those periods.”
“But I can assure you and all Canadians that the 2019 and 2021 elections were not subject to interference that changed the results in any significant way,” he added.
So they WERE subject to interference.
Lying @$$hole.
Also - bull. Sh--.
If you can freeze bank accounts and steal donations, you CAN stop foreign interference:
“Often we cannot do anything.”
That was the assessment given to a House of Commons committee earlier this month by Canada’s deputy commissioner of elections, referring to 23 files their office received about potential foreign interference in the country’s two most recent elections.
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In a video CNN published on Friday, two men wearing white hazmat suits inside a home were seen trying to drag a man off of a living room couch. The man, who was yelling during the situation, was trying to get away from the two men while reaching to grab the couch.
The situation took place on Nov. 30 in the eastern city of Hangzhou, just southwest of Shanghai.
"He was identified as being a 'close contact' of a person who tested positive for COVID-19," the video's on-screen text read, crediting the Linping District Government as a source.
"Authorities also said they 'reprimanded and educated the relevant individuals,'" the video's on-screen text continued.
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JUST IN - By simply click a buton on a computer, Chinese government remotely switched all these people's COVID passport to code yellow or red to stop them from leaving Guangzhou city.
— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) December 2, 2022
These people from other provinces just wanted to go home. Now they are stuck at train station https://t.co/xAbocM6GKo pic.twitter.com/NJ7aPl7o09
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While the rest of the world has mostly moved on from Covid, China is in year three of an increasingly brutal—and unsuccessful—effort to extinguish the virus. True, the country has seen relatively few Covid deaths, but it has come at a steep price: to keep people inside, the authorities have, in many cases, welded apartment doors shut or locked them with chains. A sophisticated digital-surveillance system keeps close tabs on everyone. Food and medicine have been in short supply. Children have been separated from parents, and people have been forced into quarantine camps. Depression and suicide have been on the rise.
The Urumqi tragedy was a galvanizing moment. After the fire, the people of Urumqi were the first to lead the way. Thousands defied the lockdown and took to the streets to protest, and with some success: they obtained the end of the restrictions in the least affected districts of the city.
Since then, protests have taken place at universities in Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and in neighborhoods in Wuhan, Chongqing, and Lanzhou, where crowds have destroyed Covid testing booths.
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