We Don't Have to Trade With China

But the the lure of cheap crape made by slave labour is so powerful:

The Department of Canadian Heritage bought maple leaf flag pins from China even as the Commons voted to condemn the People’s Republic for crimes against humanity, records show. Federal contracts for patriotic paraphernalia were worth hundreds of thousands: “This is our national symbol. This is our country.”

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After a national security review, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne is ordering three Chinese resource companies to sell their interests in Canadian critical mineral firms.

(Sidebar: this Champagne.)

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Oh, is that all?:

CBC News is shutting down its Beijing news bureau after a more-than-40-year presence in China, saying it was forced to take the step after officials have ignored repeated requests for a journalist work visa.

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Why not shut them down?:

The RCMP says it is investigating reports of criminal activity related to so-called foreign “police” stations in Canada after a human rights group reported China is operating more than 50 such venues overseas, including three in the Greater Toronto Area.

We know why and we know why they won't be shut down.

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Chinese Communists ran a propaganda campaign to steer votes from Conservative candidates in the last election, the House affairs committee was told yesterday. It was difficult to gauge the impact, witnesses testified: “It’s incredibly hard to measure the impact of these sorts of operations on election outcomes.”

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Any nuclear deal with Iran will not make the world a "safer place". It will provide the Iranian regime with billions of dollars, help it to send more advanced weaponry to Russia to inflict even more damage on Ukrainians, pave the way for the ruling mullahs to legally obtain nuclear weapons, and strengthen America's other adversaries, Russia, China and North Korea.

This North Korea:

A train crossed from North Korea into Russia on Friday, two days after the United States said it had information indicating Pyongyang is covertly supplying Russia with artillery shells for its war in Ukraine, a Washington think tank said, citing commercial satellite imagery.

The 38 North project, which monitors North Korean developments, said it was the first time such a train movement had been observed on the route in several years, although Russia's veterinary service reported on Wednesday that a train had crossed the border into North Korea carrying horses.

"It is impossible to determine the purpose of the train from the imagery, but the crossing comes amid reports of arms sales from North Korea to Russia and a general expectation of the resumption of trade between the two countries," 38 North said.

It said North Korea closed the 800-meter (yard) Tumangang Friendship Bridge (Korea-Russia Friendship Bridge), the only land link between the countries, in February 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report said that at 10:24 a.m. local time (0124 GMT) a three-car set of enclosed railcars was visible on the Korean side of the border, and by 1:10 p.m. local time (0410 GMT) it appeared to be in Russia behind a locomotive, about 200 meters (yards) from the end of the railway bridge.

At 2:29 p.m. (0529 GMT) the locomotive and three railcars were visible on tracks at Russia's Khasan Station, approximately 2 km (1.2 miles) from the border, and three smaller covered railcars, or possible containers on flatcars, were parked alongside the newly arrived train on an adjacent track.

"Whether a transfer of material was in progress could not be determined, and the parked locations of these train sets may have been unrelated," the report said.