A top foreign affairs official says China’s history of lashing out means that “sensitive matters” in a long-running espionage case before Canada’s courts should be kept away from public discussion.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to seal documents and close coming courtroom hearings in the criminal case of Qing Quentin Huang, an Ontario shipbuilder who was charged in 2013 with violating the Security of Information Act by allegedly trying to communicate Canadian naval secrets to China.
Information about Canada’s winter survival military training with China has been in the public sphere for some years but only drew heightened attention after recent media coverage.
A February 2018 tweet by the Canadian Army shows Canadian soldiers participating in winter training in China with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and Canada extending an invitation to China to take part in the same training in Petawawa, Ont., at a future date. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said during question period on Dec. 10 that the engagement was part of a cooperation initiative signed with China back in 2013.
PM invites China’s army for “cold weather training” in Canada – while China holds Canadians captive.
December 10 marked two years since China’s Communist regime seized Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. “These two Canadians are an absolute priority for our government,” Canadian foreign minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters, “and we will continue to work tirelessly to secure their immediate release and to stand up for them as a government and as Canadians.” According to another story that broke last week, the government’s true priority is to ignore the captives and stand up for China.
A troop of Chinese nationals are training to become pilots at a decommissioned Canadian military base near Red Deer, Alberta. After receiving several tips suggesting that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was actively training military personnel at the former CFB Penhold, Rebel News visited the location to investigate.
Let’s start with one certainty: The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) should not be training China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in winter warfare tactics, particularly on Canadian soil. Period.
That’s the scandal in the revelation this week by online news site Rebel News and by the Globe and Mail that elements of the Trudeau government were at odds with one another over whether to cancel joint training exercises between the CAF and PLA at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, near Ottawa, in the winter of 2019.
It’s been obvious for some time that there is something weird about the way Canada approaches its relationship with China — a disconnect brought into sharp relief this week by the news that Global Affairs and the Department of National Defence were not the same page when it came to military ties and training involving the People’s Liberation Army.
In some respects, the volcanic online political eruption which followed stories in The Globe and Mail and other media outlets, based on exclusive access to information documents, was predictable, as was the flurry of finger-pointing in the House of Commons on Thursday and Friday.
Diplomats were alarmed when Gen. Jonathan Vance, the country’s senior military commander, cancelled winter military exercises with the PLA in 2019, fretting that it might aggravate Beijing or make the lives of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor even worse.
There exists within our borders and institutions both private and public a bought and paid for China Class that has been busily undermining Canadian society and sovereignty for decades.
