My mother always said that I shouldn’t poke my nose into something that doesn’t concern me. She said that even a peek would make me liable to whatever happens in the situation, and may even be an accessory to it. I wonder if Margaret Trudeau gave her son, Justin, the same advise. Probably not.
Canadian Robert Schellenberg, who jailed for drug trafficking, has been sentenced to death by a Chinese court in a hasty retrial in retaliation for the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on charges related to the violation of sanctions on Iran. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that the sentence is “arbitrary”, leaving Schellenberg hanging high and dry, while Meng enjoys her multi-million dollar homes in vancouver’s West end, protected by the same government that should be pretending its citizens. Allies such as Australia and the United States have issued statements condemning the death sentence, while the Liberals remain mum.
The story would have been different if the Canada just stayed out of it. Like my mother sad, we shouldn’t have poked our noses into something the US had a problem with. It wasn’t our problem, and if we hadn’t acted on their “request” to hold Meng, we would just have a problem with them (which we already do) and not with China. Now, we are walking on proverbial eggs with both countries. Trudeau is already enjoying a steady decline in his popularity, why add to it?
That’s not all. Michael Coren, author and columnist in his interview with CBC’s Wendy Mesley, said that there is a great movement in the Right that the Trudeau government has always opposed and ignored by passing laws that do not consult the entire population. The Christian Right has seen how powerful the vote of the silent majority is when Donald Trump was elected in the United States, and this seems to be a trend now in the upcoming elections, with Conservative Party Andrew Scheer, and People’s Party Maxime Bernier talking about three major issues that concern the Right – abortion, LGBT issues and free speech. Bernier voted for Bill C-16, the gender-identity bill, but later vowed to repeal it on the grounds that it threatens freedom of speech. The Right said they will support the Conservatives in the election, primarily because they are the best alternative to the governing Liberals, whom Charles McVety, a social conservative and president of Canada Christian College, described as being “hostile.” The Liberal Party continues to ignore the call of the conservative Right, and according to Coren, a lot of the conservative Right are already a young generation, not the gray-haired seniors who fill pews in Church. Ottawa’s Doug Ford and Alberta’s Jason Kenney have seen this support, and many more people are speaking up, with the website of Coalition for Life being very active in posting the anti-abortion candidates on their website. A lot of people are beginning to talk, and others are listening, except for the Liberal Party, of course.
So, what does this mean for Justin Trudeau? Well, it’s an uphill climb. When you have slipped too far down the slope, going up will be challenging. This controversy with Huawei isn’t helping either. Poland’s Internal Security Agency has arrested and charged a Huawei employee for espionage in the country, and recent news media reports reveal U.S. authorities are pursuing a case against the company.
New Zealand, Australia and the United States have already announced they will ban Huawei from doing business in their mobile networks. Canada’s hands are tied, thanks to a contract our mobile networks drew up with the Chinese mobile giant. And with Meng in our territory, the rope will get tighter.