Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Mid-Week Post

Your pre-summer fun post ...



We don't have to trade with China:

Liberal appointee Senator Yuen Pau Woo (B.C.) yesterday said he feared Canadians in “regular contact with a foreign state agent” will be targeted under a new security bill. Woo earlier reacted angrily when asked by reporters if he was a Chinese Communist Party agent: “It is deeply insulting.”

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The Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) revealed a major intelligence breach on Thursday – the discovery of piles of confidential military documents for sale as scrap at a recycling facility to any passerby for less than three dollars.

The MSS, which established an account on the regime-controlled WeChat online platform last year to pressure civilians into heightened vigilance against alleged threats to the Communist Party, announced that two individuals in charge of disposing of military documents were “dealt with” in response to the incident.

According to the state-run Global Times, the documents were discovered in an undisclosed part of the country by an elderly man named Zhang, who happened to be walking by the recycling facility and saw what appeared to be military documents for sale. Zhang “enjoys collecting military reading materials,” the Global Times detailed, and bought four books for $0.83, or six yuan, out of curiosity.

“When Zhang returned home and started carefully reading the books, he found they were with marked with words such as ‘classified’ and ‘confidential’ and suddenly realized that these materials may be related to state secrets,” the state newspaper detailed. The documents were described as “brand new,” meaning that they did not include outdated military information but, rather, highly sensitive and currently relevant information.

The Chinese government applauded Zhang for notifying Communist Party authorities “without hesitation” and said an investigation is currently ongoing into how the documents arrived in the possession of the recycling center, available to any interested party at a low price.


Or Elizabeth May's name?:


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Liberal appointee Senator Donna Dasko (Ont.) yesterday questioned whether foreign agents did any harm in the last two general elections. A judicial inquiry ruled May 3 “it is possible” the outcome in a handful of ridings was influenced by the Chinese Communist Party: “Do you think that happened?”

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For two weeks, the inferred conclusions of “treason” on Parliament Hill derived from an 84-page-report that none of us is allowed to read have only heaped fuel on a garbage fire that began with the leaked revelations of intelligence agency whistleblowers going back to November 2022.
The stinking reek of it all should not be expected to subside any time soon. All the parties in the House now seem content with having the matter kicked over to Justice Marie-Josée Hogue’s Foreign Interference Commission. In the short term, if any legislative good comes of the international spectacle Canada’s political class has been making of itself, it will be in the outcome of Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, which completed third reading in the House of Commons on Thursday.
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Among the milestones on the road to this juncture was the whitewash that the Liberals conscripted “special rapporteur” David Johnston to undertake on their behalf, which ended in June last year when Johnston abdicated in disgrace after the failure of his three-month, $1.9 million exercise in garbage-fire extinguishment. This did nothing but make the smell of it all more nauseating. Another important milestone was last September’s establishment of Justice Hogue’s commission, which the Trudeau government had fought tooth and nail to scuttle. The attempt to head it off failed only because of public outrage and the Liberals’ minority position in the House.
In their testimony during the commission’s hearings earlier this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic Leblanc, National Defence Minister Bill Blair and a gaggle of senior Liberal officials came perilously close to committing perjury in their efforts to pretend they didn’t know what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had been warning them about for years, and in the attempt to hide what they knew about the role China’s proxies played in their party’s hair’s-breadth 2019 Don Valley North nomination of Beijing-friendly candidate Han Dong.
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The federal and Saskatchewan governments are stepping in to prevent Canadian rare earth metals from falling into the hands of a Chinese buyer after facing backlash from critics who alleged that allowing the transaction to proceed was anathema to Canada’s critical minerals policy.
Australia-based Vital Metals Ltd. in December announced it was selling its stockpile of rare earths that were mined at the Nechalacho Project in the Northwest Territories to China’s Shenghe Resources Holding Co.,Ltd.
Vital agreed to the transaction after accepting a 10-per-cent equity stake financing from Shenghe.
When Nechalacho was operating, it was the only rare earth mine in Canada, and was promoted by Ottawa as part of this country’s solution to Chinese domination of critical minerals. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a visit to Vital Metals’ processing plant in Saskatchewan in 2023, praised its efforts to set up a Canadian supply chain in rare earth metals, as he pointed out that China is a “challenging partner at the best of times.”
Heather Exner-Pirot, senior fellow and director of natural resources, energy and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute told The Globe and Mail earlier this year that it was “crazy” that Canada was selling its only rare earths stockpile to the Chinese.
But Vital Metals on Monday, in a reversal of its earlier strategy, said that it will not proceed with its plan to sell the stockpile to Shenghe. Instead, it will sell the metal to the Saskatchewan Research Council, an entity that is owned by the Saskatchewan government. Vital said the deal was facilitated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). Vital is selling the metal for $3-million, or roughly $3.3-million (Australian) which is higher than the $2.6-million (Australian) deal with Shenghe.
Vital Metals in a statement said that Canada recognizes Nechalacho as a “strategic asset that contributes to the country’s prosperity and critical minerals goals.”
The move by both levels of government to intervene in the public markets is another example of the Canadian government taking an increasingly activist stance in bolstering the domestic critical minerals industry and rejecting Chinese investment.
Federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne in late 2022 said that he would only allow Chinese companies to finance Canadian critical minerals companies on an exceptional basis. Ottawa tightened the rules in large part because China has become so powerful in controlling the supply chain of many critical minerals, particularly battery metals such as lithium, cobalt and graphite.

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Quelle surprise:

The media was singled out in a recent review by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, which Mr. McGuinty chairs.

It highlights how China and India are interfering with Canadian media content through direct engagement with journalists and media executives.

“Foreign interference is definitely in the media, and it is singled out in the review, not only in our most immediate review but in our past review,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters on June 12.

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It was never about a virus:

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.


Oh, it doesn't end there.

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Chinese forces seized two Philippine rubber boats that were delivering food and other supplies to a military outpost in a disputed South China Sea shoal in a tense confrontation in which some Filipino navy personnel were injured, Philippine security officials said Tuesday.

The United States renewed a warning Tuesday that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, a treaty ally, a day after the hourslong hostilities in Second Thomas Shoal. The shoal has been occupied by a small Philippine navy contingent aboard a long-grounded warship that has been closely monitored by China's coast guard and navy in a yearslong territorial standoff.

There is fear that territorial disputes in the South China Sea, long regarded as an Asian flashpoint, could escalate and pit the United States and China in a larger conflict. China and the Philippines blamed each other for Monday’s hostilities, the most serious in recent months, but provided few details.

A Philippine government task force overseeing the territorial disputes condemned what it said were “dangerous maneuvers, including ramming and towing” which disrupted an effort to transport food, water and other supplies to the Filipinos manning the territorial outpost on the grounded ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, at the shoal. It did not elaborate.

Two Philippine security officials, who had knowledge of the supply mission at the shoal, separately told The Associated Press that two rubber boats manned by Filipino navy personnel had approached the BRP Sierra Madre at the shoal to deliver fresh supplies when several Chinese coast guard personnel on speedboats arrived to disrupt the mission, sparking a scuffle and collisions.

At least eight of the Filipinos were injured, including one who lost a thumb, in the scuffle, said one of the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were under orders not to discuss the high-seas confrontation publicly.

Five of the injured sailors were rescued by one of two Philippine coast guard patrol ships that were waiting at a distance to back up the navy’s supply mission at the shoal. The two rubber supply boats were towed away by Chinese coast guard personnel and then abandoned after being damaged and emptied of their contents, including an unspecified number of rifles, the two officials said. They were later recovered by the Filipino navy, they said.

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Some anti-China protesters said they were treated roughly by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Another scandal erupted when Chinese officials traveling with Li physically blocked an Australian journalist once imprisoned by China from appearing on camera with Li.

The premier is second in power only to China’s dictator Xi Jinping. Li was the first Chinese premier to visit Australia in seven years. He arrived on Saturday and made an appearance at the Adelaide Zoo on Monday, where he promised a new pair of giant pandas would arrive soon. China often uses “panda diplomacy” to either express its anger or soothe hurt feelings by withdrawing or promising pandas to other countries.

Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, is a major exporter of wine to China. China brought that $800 million trade to a halt in 2020 with heavy tariffs — some of them over 200 percent — along with effective bans on other Australian products like lobster, beef, coal, and lumber.

China imposed these tariffs because the Australian government insisted on asking tough questions about the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus. Tensions also grew over Chinese interference in Australian politics, Australia excluding China’s telecom behemoth Huawei from its 5G networks, and Australia forging closer strategic relationships with the U.S., UK, and Japan.

China lifted the tariffs in March as relations between the two countries thawed, while Australia withdrew complaints it had lodged with the World Trade Organization (WTO). China’s embargo on Australian lobster remains in effect, but Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell predicted it would be lifted after Li’s goodwill visit.



But I thought that this was all sorted out:

Newly revised economic data suggests Canada's pledge to bring its defence spending closer to NATO's benchmark is coming off the rails already, a House of Commons committee heard Monday.

A little more than two months after the Liberal government promised to increase its defence spending to 1.76 per cent of the gross domestic product by the end of the decade, a defence analyst told MPs that target likely won't be reached.

The pledge was made in Canada's new defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free, released back in April. It still falls short of NATO's benchmark, which calls on member states to spend at least the equivalent of two per cent of their national GDP on defence and security.

On Monday, NATO issued a report tracking all member countries' projected defence spending for 2024; it forecast Canada would spend 1.37 per cent of its GDP on defence.

"Since [the new defence policy] was published, the [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] economic projections used in that calculation have already been revised upwards for the next two years, which means that [Canada's] share of GDP spent on defence will drop," Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI), told the House of Commons defence committee on Monday.

"As a result, as of today, we are already falling short of the spending as a share of GDP outlined in the policy."



Do you see what happens when you don't collect capital gains taxes?!

Somewhat related - wave the flag for Uncle Fidel:
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Defence Minister Bill Blair said he authorized a Canadian navy vessel to sail into Havana’s harbour last week at the request of navy commanders as part of a mission to demonstrate Canada’s capabilities.
“Their job is to demonstrate our presence there to demonstrate our naval capability and to demonstrate and assert Canada’s commitment to safe and open waters throughout the Americas, that’s why we were there,” he said on Parliament Hill on Monday.
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The HMCS Margaret Brooke docked in Havana with the Cuban government’s approval last Friday. The ship is one of Canada’s new offshore patrol vessels and is a lightly armed ship with the ability to carry a cyclone helicopter. It has now left Havana and is on the way back to Canada.
The ship docked beside a Russian navy missile submarine that was in Cuba at the same time, and was among a fleet of Russian vessels sailing near North America in recent weeks. Blair said the Russian vessels do not appear to be a threat, but he said Canada had dispatched other ships to patrol alongside American ships and keep a close eye on the Russian fleet.
“Canada is committed to maintaining a credible military presence in the sea and in the air around our continent and any foreign actors coming into our neighbourhood can expect to see our armed forces fulfilling their mission to protect Canada’s interest,” he said.
Blair said when he approved the HMCS Margaret Brooke’s trip into Havana the military was aware that the Russian submarine would be docked there at the same time. He said there were classified reasons for sending the ship that he would not share with the public.



No country for anyone: 

Next year, Grade 10 students in British Columbia will be required to learn about the Holocaust as part of their coursework to graduate. It is content the provincial government added to the mandatory curriculum last October, weeks after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel.
But internal communications among members of the BC Teachers’ Federation, as well as screenshots of deleted social-media posts obtained by The Globe and Mail, show deep division about the current conflict in the Middle East, with some Jewish teachers deeply offended by the actions of other teachers belonging to a social-justice group.
The BCTF endorses and helps finance 31 provincial specialist associations, each representing like-minded educators who share focus areas. The groups facilitate the development of teacher resources and conduct professional-development sessions.
Last week, the council responsible for approving the creation of these associations denied membership to a group of teachers formed to advise on Holocaust and Antisemitism issues. But reporter Xiao Xu was directed to the website of the Anti-Oppression Educators Collective, one of the 31 that does receive funding.
The AOEC prominently displayed the BCTF logo on its homepage. Among the group’s activities was a workshop in April called “Teaching for Palestine,” designed to “guide educators through the complexities of teaching, organizing, and advocating for Palestinian human rights and equality within classrooms and schools.” Screenshots of social-media posts by the group encourage people to show up for pro-Palestinian rallies.
The letter rejecting the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators Association’s application for specialist designation did not explain reasons, but in a later, unattributed statement on its website, the union said the council determined that existing PSAs “already can and do support the proposed work.”
One of those groups, according to the union, is the AOEC.
BCTF president Clint Johnston said the AOEC was formed to address all forms of discrimination and oppression, including antisemitism. Members of the AOEC have been developing more resources on antisemitism and have expressed an interest in working with members of the HAEA on contributions.
But internal correspondence from last winter between a group of Jewish teachers and the AOEC indicates that could be difficult.
In their letter, the Jewish teachers objected to social-media posts and other materials produced by the AOEC that called for the freeing of all Palestinian prisoners, that referred to Israelis as settler colonialists and declared support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
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The CBC was flooded with a record number of complaints last year over its Mideast coverage with thousands citing anti-Jewish bias, says a report to the board. Audience complaints numbered 4,785 last year, “a 45 percent increase in volume from 2022.”
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 Canadian Favourability Of Israel:
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The mother of Liri Albag, a 19-year-old female soldier abducted on October 7, shares information about her daughter that she received from Noa Argamani, who was rescued from captivity in Gaza last week.

“Noa said that they were slaves, and so were the [female soldiers], including Liri,” Shira Albag says in a statement. “They cleaned the yard, did dishes and prepared food that they were not allowed to eat.”

She says her daughter was held in a luxury villa and was only allowed to shower after a month in captivity. After 40 days, according to Shira Albag, Liri was moved into Hamas’s network of underground tunnels.

“There it’s much worse, there’s no fresh water, and not much food,” she says, adding that the hostages have no clean clothes and no way to wash and dry their garments, “not even underwear.”





Who has the money to battle a government that wants this woman dead?:

The Calgary dad who desperately wants to block his adult daughter from ending her life through Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has abandoned his appeal of a court ruling saying the procedure can go ahead.
Court records show the lawyer for the father, who can only be identified as W.V., Sarah Miller, filed notices discontinuing two separate appeals of Justice Colin Feasby’s March 25 decision which lifted an injunction blocking the autistic woman’s access to MAiD.
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Reached Wednesday evening, Miller declined to comment on why her client was no longer pursuing legal action to block his daughter’s assisted suicide.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday released a redacted letter sent by Miller on June 6, indicating she would be discontinuing the appeals as the daughter, M.V., took certain actions.
A court official redacted the portion of Miller’s letter explaining what that action would have to be.
Miller had told the court her client had received information, but what that was was removed from her email.
She went on to say she asked for clarification from lawyers for M.V. and AHS, but hadn’t received further information at the time of her correspondence to the court.
“As such, we write to provide advanced notice and advise the court that should M.V. (redacted content) we will be filing a discontinuation appeal as the question of an injunction will become moot,” the lawyer wrote.
Feasby ordered a stay of his ruling to allow the father to file an appeal, which he did.
Miller then asked the Alberta Court of Appeal to stay the Court of King’s Bench judge’s ruling.



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