Yes, Foreign Agents Try to Shape Your Opinion about Israel

by Yves Engler / May 22nd, 2024

The merging of Zionist propaganda and anti-China hysteria should embarrass its proponents, but apparently there’s a market for this conspiratorial drivel in the “post-truth” era promoted by the far right. They want us to believe the paid foreign agents we should be concerned about are students in $40 tents calling for university divestment, not those working for a foreign-focused lobby with billions of dollars.

Last week National Post columnist John Ivison claimed the Chinese Communist Party was funding the popular uprising against Canada’s role in enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Of course he supplied absolutely no evidence. The front-page article headlined “Chinese links to protests fit pattern” began: “the public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada has already established that China tried to meddle in the last two general election campaigns. But, if a new report into the funding of the anti-Israel movement in North America is to be believed, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also linked to the protests that are disrupting cities and campuses across the continent.” Notice the hedging? If it “is to be believed”. In other words, there is absolutely no evidence that he is willing to cite.

On X, I responded, “A well-financed foreign focused lobby has employed every tactic short of assassination to scuttle a popular uprising against genocide in Gaza and Johnny boy claims those who don’t want Canada to enable the slaughter are a Chinese Communist Party front. You are beyond ridiculous.”

Ivison retorted, “What’s wrong, Yves? Are your paymasters unhappy at any scrutiny of their funding of Canada’s legion of useful idiots?” CBC and Globe and Mail commentator Andrew Coyne and former Toronto Sun editor Lorrie Goldstein retweeted Ivison’s idiocy to which I responded: “You haven’t a scintilla of evidence I’ve been funded by any foreign, corporate or wealthy interest. You on other hand are paid by a paper set up by Conrad Black and currently owned by a US hedge fund. Are you ashamed of promoting genocide and being such a sycophant of power?”

Since campaigning against Canada’s role in overthrowing Haiti’s elected government 20 years ago, I’ve repeatedly been accused of receiving money from Haitian, Venezuelan, Russian, Iranian and Chinese officials. It’s common to claim that internationalists and anti-imperialists are funded by foreign enemies. In a bid to delegitimize the anti-genocide movement, especially the student divestment encampments, there’s been a burst of these claims recently. In “Hidden hand funds Jew-hating protests, rallies, encampments”, Warren Kinsella makes a mockery of himself. The Toronto Sun commentary concluded, “The rest of us know the truth: the Jew-hating protests, rallies and encampments we are seeing are funded, in whole or in part, by outside interests who do not wish to reveal themselves. They are the hidden hand. But the rest of us will not rest until the hidden hand is exposed.”

The imaginary “hidden hand” versus documented apartheid lobby truth. It’s easy to trace at least part of the mammoth sums the apartheid lobby has used to shape Canadian opinion since all taxpayers subsidize the registered “charities” behind their propaganda. Montreal’s Jewish federation has $2 billion in assets. The other federations have hundreds of millions of dollars more. (The federations receive tens of millions of dollars in government grants and tens of millions more in subsidy through tax receipts they offer to donors).

The federations fund a bevy of genocidal organizations and their official advocacy arm is the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. CIJA has a slew of ties to Israel with its top lobbyist, David Cooper, a long-time press officer at the Israeli Embassy. The Jewish Federations of Canada (JFC) and its United Israel Appeal (UIA) calls “the government of Israel” one of its “key strategic partners … that act as agents in the delivery of programs in Israel.” Between 1991 and 2022 UIA received over $1.5 billion in donations, which largely came from the federations.

At a broader level, Canada’s Jewish Federations have long been formally tied to the Jewish Agency for Israel (Jewish Agency for Palestine until 1948). Its website notes, “Canadian Federations are engaged in unique alliances with the Jewish Agency for Israel” and “founded in 1929, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) is a primary agent for JFC-UIA in carrying out our mandate.”

The Jewish Agency for Israel effectively became Israel’s government in 1948 with long-time head David Ben-Gurion its first prime minister. Israel’s first foreign minister and second prime minister, Moshe Sharett, subsequently led the Jewish Agency while current Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, stepped down as head of the Jewish Agency to take that position. Today the Jewish Agency for Israel is a parastatal organization that seeks to further Judaize Israel, especially far-flung areas.

No corporate media ever discusses the federations’ formal ties to Israel. Nor do we hear about the huge sums spent on pro-apartheid campaigning in Canada.

But we know one thing for certain: The paid foreign agents for Israel and its genocide aren’t sleeping in $40 tents.Facebook

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Yves Engler is the author of 12 books. His latest book is Stand on Guard for Whom?: A People's History of the Canadian Military . Read other articles by Yves.

ANTI-ASIAN SCAPEGOAT

MP Han Dong threatens legal action against Global over foreign interference report

Story by The Canadian Press •

OTTAWA — Han Dong is threatening legal action against Global News and its parent company after the media outlet published an allegation the Toronto MP spoke to a Chinese diplomat about delaying the release of two Canadians.


MP Han Dong threatens legal action against Global over foreign interference report© Provided by The Canadian Press

"Yes, I am taking legal action against Global News and Corus Entertainment," Dong said in a statement on Monday. "I have retained a lawyer to begin legal action to its fullest extent."

The statement follows a Global News report last week, citing anonymous security sources, that alleged the Toronto MP spoke about Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig with a Chinese diplomat in Toronto in February 2021.

The two Canadian men had been detained by China in December 2018, just over a week after the RCMP arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Global News alleged that Dong told China's consul general in Toronto that releasing the men would benefit the Conservatives, but also that showing some "progress" in the case would help the Liberals.

Global News has also published allegations that Dong benefited from Chinese foreign interference in the Canadian electoral process.

The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations against Dong, who announced Wednesday that he was leaving the Liberal caucus and would sit as an Independent to defend himself.

Global News editor-in-chief Sonia Verma stood by the outlet's reporting on Monday, saying in a statement: "Global News is governed by a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices, and we are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting."

Dong did not immediately respond to questions about his lawyer's identity, or whether he has filed a statement of claim in court to formally launch legal proceeedings.

In his statement on Monday, Dong pushed back against allegations of having worked with Beijing by relating his father's experience under the Chinese Communist regime, which included having been sent to a "re-education camp" in 1970.

"The trauma left on my father is one of the compelling reasons why, as co-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association and a member of Parliament, I took every available opportunity to advocate on behalf of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and to call for their immediate release," he said.

"It is inconceivable that I would ever suggest a falsely accused individual should spend an extra minute in jail."

Dong said he supports a public inquiry on foreign interference in Canada, and that he is willing to meet with former governor general David Johnston, who has been tapped as a special rapporteur to look into such allegations.

"I can look at myself in the mirror and know, with full certainty, that I have the truth on my side," he said. "My anonymous false accusers and their enablers cannot say the same."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2023.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

MP Han Dong says he has retained a lawyer, plans to take legal action against Global News

Story by Catharine Tunney • CBC

MP Han Dong says he has retained a lawyer and plans to sue Global News after it published a story alleging he advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — the two Canadians being held by China at the time.


Toronto-area MP Han Dong announced he was leaving the Liberal caucus after Global News published a story alleging he advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — the two Canadians being held by China at the time.

Dong, who left Liberal caucus last week, confirmed to Global that he had a discussion with Consul General Han Tao but emphatically denied that he had advised Beijing to delay releasing the two Canadians.

On Friday, the Globe and Mail reported that the government received a CSIS transcript of Dong's conversation with the consul and concluded that there was no "actionable evidence," adding that it could not be determined that Dong asked the Chinese government to keep the two Canadians in prison for political reasons.

In a statement posted to Twitter Monday, Dong said he has a lawyer to "begin legal action to its fullest extent."

Dong writes that his father was shaped by the time he spent at the May Seventh Cadre School re-education camp in 1970 during China's cultural revolution, where he was "subjected to forced labour and 24-hour surveillance" for a year.

"From that experience my father knew there was no future left for him in China," Dong wrote.

He said his father came to Canada two months after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and brought the rest of family over the next year.

"The trauma left on my father is one of the compelling reasons why, as co-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association and a Member of Parliament, I took every available opportunity to advocate on behalf of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and to call for their immediate release," he wrote.

"It is inconceivable that I would ever suggest a falsely accused individual should spend an extra minute in jail."

CBC News has reached out to Global and Corus Entertainment for comment.

'I have the truth on my side:' Dong

The Don Valley North MP said he supports a public inquiry into Chinese government interference and said he is willing to meet with former governor general David Johnston, the government's recently appointed special rapporteur on foreign interference, and provide him with information.

"Despite the abuse and shame my family has suffered over the last few weeks, I truly believe that my parents made the right decision to come to Canada," Dong wrote.

"I can look at myself in the mirror and know, with full certainty, that I have the truth on my side. My anonymous false accusers and their enablers cannot say the same."

During a news conference Friday, Trudeau was asked if he believed Dong advocated for the delayed release of Kovrig and Spavor.

He responded by recommending that people watch Dong's speech in the House of Commons earlier this week.

"We fully accept that he is stepping away from the Liberal caucus in order to vigorously contest these allegations," said Trudeau.

"Interference from authoritarian governments like China, Russia, Iran and others is a very real challenge to our democracies and it's absolutely unacceptable."

Dong is also the centre of allegations his election campaign benefited from Beijing's meddling and that he was "a witting affiliate."

Global News cited anonymous sources who alleged national security officials gave an urgent briefing to senior aides from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office in 2019 "warning them that one of their candidates was part of a Chinese foreign interference network."

Dong also denies those allegations.

March 27, 2023

KINSELLA: Can former Liberal MP Han Dong be charged with treason?

Opinion by Warren Kinsella • Thursday, March 23,2023

MP for Don Valley North Han Dong.© Provided by Toronto Sun


Can he be charged with treason?

It’s a question many are asking. It’s a fair question.

Since Wednesday night, when Global News dropped a bomb on Canadian politics — that former Liberal and now Independent MP Han Dong had allegedly lobbied China’s regime to illegally keep two Canadians in prison there, that’s a question I’ve been asked many times: If the allegations are true, can Dong be prosecuted for treason?

It’s important to emphasize, here, that the Toronto-area MP hasn’t been charged with any crime. He’s resigned from the Liberal caucus to clear his name — as a Conservative MPP in Ontario did earlier this month, for similar reasons — but no one has charged Han Dong with breaking any law.

And that may be because there’s no law to charge him with breaking.

In Canada, as with our allies, “treason” remains a serious crime. In the Criminal Code, it is defined in this way: “Every one commits treason who, in Canada, uses force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada or a province …

“[Or] without lawful authority, communicates or makes available to an agent of a state other than Canada, military or scientific information or any sketch, plan, model, article, note or document of a military or scientific character that he knows or ought to know may be used by that state for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada.”

We’ve got a criminal prohibition against “high treason,” too. But it’s a dramatically higher bar for prosecutors to clear. High treason is killing or attempting to kill our King or Queen — or waging actual war against Canada, or helping the enemy during a time of war.

But, as far as we know, we’re not at war. And, so far, the allegations against Dong don’t seem to fit a “treason” charge, either.

In the United States, someone facing similar allegations might not be so lucky.

The Americans don’t mess around. There, treason is a capital offence — you can be put to death for it.

Chapter 115 of the U.S. Code: “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years.”

Having sworn an oath to Canada, the allegations Dong faces would be a violation of a similar law here. And “giving aid or comfort” to the enemy — here, China — would easily describe the untried allegations against Han Dong.

In Britain, the law against treason has been around for nearly seven centuries. It’s one of the oldest statutes in the United Kingdom

Though amended many times over the years, The Treason Act 1351, as in Canada, distinguishes between treason and high treason. High treason is killing the King or Queen — but also, originally, less serious offences like making counterfeit currency.

Ironically (given their origins), Americans seem to have borrowed the “aid or comfort” idea from the Brits. There, the allegations against Dong would arguably amount to high treason. The last Briton executed for treason — collaborating with wartime Germany — was hanged in 1946.

LILLEY: Liberal MP Dong resigns from party over interference claims

For those who remain livid about the allegations against Han Dong, we’re sorry: He can’t be charged with high treason or even mere treason.

He wasn’t a cabinet minister or a senior bureaucrat or a member of the military, so he isn’t easily caught by the new version of the Official Secrets Act, the Security of Information Act. Did he — as the Act says — harm “Canadian interests”?

The interests of the two Michaels, to be sure, if true. But were those identical to Canada’s? That’s less clear.

What’s clear, however, is this: While Han Dong may not be in any legal jeopardy, he sure is, politically.

CSIS is not his friend. And CSIS has apparently decided he needed to be removed from the Trudeau government.

And he has been.

MP Han Dong resigns from Liberal caucus, denies advising China to delay Two Michaels' release

Story by Ryan Tumilty , Catherine Lévesque • Wednesday, March 22,2023

OTTAWA — MP Han Dong has resigned from the Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent after a new report alleged that he spoke with Chinese diplomats in 2021 to advise them to continue to hold two Canadians captive to help the Liberal party.


Han Dong . 

Dong, who represents the Toronto riding of Don Valley North, announced his resignation in an emotional address in the House of Commons on Wednesday evening. He said he informed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the leadership of the Liberal party caucus that he would be sitting as an Independent, even as he vehemently denied the allegations.

“Let me be clear, what has been reported is false,” he said. “And I will defend myself against these absolutely untrue claims.”

“I’m taking this extraordinary step because to sit in the government caucus is a privilege and my presence there may be seen by some as a conflict of duty and the wrong place to be as an independent investigation pursues the facts in this matter,” he added.

“I’ll be sitting as an Independent so the business of government and indeed the business of Parliament is not interrupted as our work to clear my name and the truth is presented to Parliament and to Canadian people.”

The Liberal MP has faced allegations of having received help from China in winning his Toronto seat. He has denied that, and has has also defended his record in missing votes condemning China’s human rights abuses of the Uyghur minority.

“Members skip their votes, abstain their votes all the time and I wasn’t the only one that skipped the vote,” he told reporters outside the House of Commons Tuesday.

He said he has cast several votes in Parliament that could be deemed hostile to China, including voting to include Taiwan in the World Health Organization.

A Global News story last month reported that CSIS warned the Prime Minister’s Office before the 2019 election that Dong received assistance from the Chinese consulate when he successfully ran for the Liberal party’s nomination in the Toronto riding of Don Valley North. According to Global’s reporting, the consulate bussed in seniors and Chinese international students to vote for Dong in the nomination race that was contested by other Liberal candidates.

Global published new reporting on Wednesday citing anonymous national security sources alleging that Dong had spoken with China’s consul general in February 2021 and advised him that releasing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor too soon would help the Conservatives.

The Prime Minister’s Office said it only became aware of the conversation between Dong and China’s consul general after Dong told them following Global News’ inquiries about the matter.

Dong, who vehemently denied Global’s story, said he spoke with the consul general, but urged him to release the two men as soon as possible.

Related video: Liberal MP Han Dong announces he's leaving Liberal caucus amid foreign interference allegations (cbc.ca)  Duration 4:18  View on Watch

“At every opportunity before they returned home, I adamantly demanded their release to Canada without delay. Any suggestions otherwise are false and are attempts to mislead you and your readers, and slander me,” he told Global News.

The two men were ultimately released in September 2021, a few days after a federal election in which Dong’s Liberal party won a minority government.

“Let me assure you as a parliamentarian and as a person, I have never and I would never or support the violation of the basic human rights of any Canadian, of anyone, anywhere,” said Dong in the House of Commons Wednesday night.

“I want to assure Mr. Michael Spavor and Mr. Michael Kovrig and their families that I did nothing to cause them any harm,” he added. “Like everyone in this House, I’ve worked hard and advocated for their interest as a parliamentarian. The allegations made against me are as false as the ones made against you.”

His final words in his address were for his wife and children. In tears, he said the truth would protect them and they would get through this together.

Since Dong was elected in 2019, the House of Commons has had two votes connected to the Uyghur genocide and in both cases Dong was not present. In a vote this year, Dong was present for votes on other motions immediately before and immediately after the genocide vote.

Dong did not respond when the National Post initially reported on the missed votes, but spoke with reporters late Tuesday and said he didn’t miss them for a specific reason.

“Members skip their votes, abstain their votes all the time and I wasn’t the only one that skipped the vote,” he told reporters outside the House of Commons Tuesday.

He said he has cast several votes in Parliament that could be deemed hostile to China.

“I voted to condemn China when they sanctioned one of our vice chairs of a standing committee. I voted to include Taiwan in the WHO. In 2020 I moved a motion in ethics committee to study election interference, domestic and international,” he said.

Dong was asked several times if he believes a Uyghur genocide is occurring in China’s Xinjiang’s region, as many human rights groups allege, and said he has concerns about human rights there.

“I have no doubt there is a severe human rights abuse in the Xinjiang region and that needs to be looked at independently,” he said. “I have deep concerns about human rights abuse in China, especially in the Xinjiang region, and I call for the opportunity for an independent Canadian review.”

Dong said the broader accusations against him, that the Chinese consulate helped him secure his nomination don’t add up.

“I’ve never been offered nor would I accept help from a foreign country or representative from a foreign country,” he said. “I’m a Canadian nominated by Liberals, registered Liberals in Don Valley North and elected by Canadians to serve Canadians. I’m just going to focus on my work.”

Dong noted that he has never received a call from CSIS, the RCMP, or Elections Canada about any of his campaigns and all of his expense and donations have been publicly reported.

He also defended Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approach on the issue of foreign interference.

“The prime minister’s decision to have a special rapporteur to look into this and make a decision of whether a public inquiry is needed, I think it’s a very good decision.”

The RCMP told a House committee last month it did not open any investigations into foreign meddling in either the 2019 or 2021 elections. Independent panels overseeing each of those votes did not find any attempted interference that put the integrity of the elections at risk.

A closer look at MP Han Dong’s voting record on China

Story by Andrew Russell • Yesterday 

Provincial Liberal candidate Han Dong celebrates with supporters while taking part in a rally in Toronto on Thursday, May 22, 2014. Han Dong, the member of Parliament at the centre of allegations of Chinese meddling in the 2019 federal election, says he is resigning from the Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

A look at MP Han Dong’s political background and voting record

Toronto-area MP Han Dong is at the centre of a political firestorm following a Global News report that he allegedly spoke with a Chinese diplomat in 2021, advising Beijing to delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two intelligence sources.

While Dong acknowledged the conversation with China’s consul-general in Toronto, Han Tao, he strongly denied the allegations that he told Beijing to hold off the release of the two Canadians.

He has subsequently resigned from the Liberal caucus, giving an emotional speech Wednesday night in the House of Commons.

“What has been reported is false, and I will defend myself against these absolutely untrue claims,” said Dong, who will now sit as an Independent.

“Let me assure members that, as a parliamentarian and as a person, I have never advocated, and I will never and would never advocate or support the violation of the basic human rights of any Canadian or of anyone, anywhere, period.”

Video: Han Dong leaving Liberal caucus, will sit as an Independent

Global News previously reported last month that Dong is one of at least 11 Toronto-area riding candidates who was allegedly supported by Beijing in the 2019 federal election, according to national security sources.

The sources spoke to Global News on the condition of anonymity, which they requested because they risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act.

Dong has denied the allegations.

In an effort to glean more about the Don Valley North MP’s positions on issues regarding China, Global News has compiled a review of his votes and statements inside and out of the House of Commons:

Statements on the Two Michaels

Trudeau says foreign interference ‘very real challenge,’ urges people to watch Han Dong’s speech  View on Watch

Kovrig and Spavor spent more than 1,000 days in prison in China in what was believed to be in retaliation for Canada’s 2018 detention of Meng Wanzhou. The Huawei senior executive was arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant over fraud charges related to U.S. sanctions violations against Iran.

While two national security sources told Global News that Dong urged Chinese Consul General Han Tao to delay freeing the Michaels, Dong pushed back strongly against the allegations in a response to Global News.

“I raised the status of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and called for their immediate release,” he wrote.

“At every opportunity before they returned home, I adamantly demanded their release to Canada without delay. Any suggestions otherwise are false and are attempts to mislead you and your readers, and slander me.”

Global News reviewed all statements made by Dong in Parliament since he was elected in 2019 and found no remarks related to the Two Michaels or calls for their freedom prior to March 2023.

Dong did not respond to questions about where he’s previously made such statements.

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that the Trudeau government determined there was no “actionable evidence” after it received a CSIS transcript of a 2021 conversation between Dong and China’s top diplomat in Toronto.

According to The Globe, a senior government source indicated that conclusions could not be drawn that Dong asked Beijing to keep the two Canadians in prison for political reasons.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked Friday by reporters about whether he believed Dong advocated for delaying the Michaels’ freedom.

The prime minister did not directly answer that question despite his office’s review of the conversation’s transcript.

“Dong gave a strong speech in the House that I recommend people listen to. We fully accept that he is stepping away from the Liberal caucus in order to vigorously contest these allegations,” the prime minister said.

Trudeau added that meddling by China, Russia or Iran “is a very real challenge to our democracy and is absolutely unacceptable.”

Calls for interference inquiry

Shortly after resigning from the Liberal caucus, Dong voted Thursday for an inquiry into foreign election interference.

The Trudeau government has been under intense pressure for perceived inaction after reports of China's alleged meddling in Canadian elections.

Dong voted with the Conservative Party, Bloc Québécois and New Democrats to help pass the motion with 172 votes in favour and 149 against, largely comprised of Liberal MPs.

Canada-China relations

Since 2019, there have been three votes on Canada-China relations. One was to review “the Canada–China relationship,” the second a call to combat growing Chinese foreign operations in Canada, and third recognizing that authoritarian regimes like China “increasingly pose a threat to the rules-based international order.”

Dong voted with the entire or vast majority of the Liberal caucus against the three motions.

Uyghur Genocide

On Feb. 1, a Liberal motion was brought forward condemning China’s human rights abuses of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and called on the government to bring 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims to Canada.

Uyghurs in other countries, the motion said, are pressured to return to China, where they face “forced sterilization, forced labour, torture and other atrocities.”

Dong voted before and after the Uyghur genocide motion but missed the show of hands on the Uyghurs, which passed with the unanimous consent of all 322 MPs present. His absence was first reported by the National Post.

The Toronto MP did not respond to questions from Global News about his non-attendence and referred Global to his statement before the House of Commons.

“Members skip their votes, abstain their votes all the time, and I wasn’t the only one that skipped the vote,” he told reporters Tuesday.

In February 2021, there was a House vote to declare that China’s treatment of the Uyghurs constituted genocide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet abstained, but MPs were free to vote. Dong skipped that motion, which passed unanimou

Election interference

Amid a flurry of questions from reporters about the stunning allegations against him, Dong said that in 2020 he had called for a motion to study “election interference.”

In November 2020, Dong did call for a study on “ways to further protect Canada’s democratic and electoral institutions from cyber and non-cyber interference.”

The study, he said at the time, should include “how new domestic and international stakeholders, as well as other orders of government, can work together to strengthen Canada’s whole-of-society preparedness, resilience and civic engagement in the face of evolving threats to democracy.”

Wuhan Institute

In 2021, a Conservative motion sponsored by MP Michael Chong requested that the Public Health Agency turn over unredacted documents related to the shipment of viruses sent from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory to Wuhan, China in 2019, and the subsequent firing of two scientists from the Winnipeg facility.

Dong voted with the nearly entire Liberal caucus against the motion, which nonetheless passed in Parliament.

Taiwan

Speaking to reporters outside the House of Commons earlier this week, Dong said he had voted in favour of motions considered hostile to Beijing’s interests.

“I voted to condemn China when they sanctioned one of our vice chairs of a standing committee," he said. "I voted to include Taiwan in the WHO. In 2020, I moved a motion in [an] ethics committee to study election interference, domestic and international.”

China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and views any overture of support as meddling in its internal affairs.

In October 2022, Dong indeed joined 323 MPs in voting for the politically sensitive country to become a WHO member. And in June 2021, Dong joined all 327 MPs in favour of unanimously passing a Parliamentary committee motion to condemn Chinese sanctions levied against Conservative MP Michael Chong.

Hong Kong

In February, Dong publicly supported the Liberal government’s move to expand the open-work permit program for Hong Kong residents.

The former British colony, which reverted to Beijing's control in 1997, has seen a massive wave of emigration following anti-government demonstrations four years ago. The protests were sparked by a bill that would have allowed people to be extradited from Hong Kong to mainland China.

“[This] announcement will ensure that Hong Kong residents who share Canada's values of freedom and democracy will continue to be able to seek opportunities to settle and succeed in Canada,” Dong said in a press release at the time.

KINSELLA: Poilievre smart to abandon convoy protesters
Opinion by Warren Kinsella •
Toronto Sun Yesterday 

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to news media outside the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Sept. 13, 2022.© Provided by Toronto Sun

Spare a thought and a prayer, if you will, for the convoy types. Because they are sad and lonely these days.

Their suitor and champion has abandoned them, you see. Pierre Poilievre has ghosted the convoy folk.

It’s no small thing. Poilievre won his Conservative Party’s leadership in a landslide – not despite the convoy folk, but partly because of them. During happier times, Poilievre marched with the convoy enthusiasts, he sang their praises, he brought them coffee and posed for selfies.

And then, the Tory leader became invisible during the convoy cabal’s time of need. Poof! He was gone. Poilievre dumped them, much like Brad Pitt dumped Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie, except with much more skill and a lot less drama.

The inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act was a lot like a criminal prosecution, even if it will make no finding of criminal culpability. But it had all the trappings of one: a judge, a witness stand, court reporters, and an army of lawyers, stacked up like cordwood.

The Public Order Emergency Commission, as it was more formally known, conducted court-like hearings at the federal Library and Archives on Wellington Street. No media reports can be found to describe what would happen when the doors would open there.

Did the convoy leaders turn around in their seats, like in Hollywood movies, expecting Poilievre to stride in, and take over the conduct of the defence? Did they expect him to arrive like Perry Mason, and free them all from the chains of Trudeau-stan oppression?

Well, he didn’t. In fact, he said nothing as the hearings got going. He did not utter a word – not one, single solitary word – about his relationship with the convoy gang.

And, in so doing, he revealed – to this writer, at least – that he’s a lot smarter than we thought he was.

Consider the evidence, because there was a lot of it. For six weeks, more than 70 witnesses appeared at the inquiry. Hundreds of thousands of documents were submitted. Videos were played. Examinations and cross-examinations took place.

The evidence, for the convoy types – those who occupied Ottawa for weeks, those who blocked border crossings from B.C.’s Pacific Highway to Windsor’s Ambassador Bridge – was very, very bad. Vandalizing the statue of Terry Fox. Desecrating the War Memorial. Defecating and urinating in public. Yelling abuse at masked Ottawa residents, many of whom had not slept in weeks because of truckers leaning on their horns – which is 115 decibels, several times over.

Oh, and the waving of swastika flags. Ironically, it was the convoy folks’ top-notch lawyer who repeatedly tried to make that into an issue. No one else.

And through it all, with the convoy types getting hammered for day after day, where was Poilievre? Gone, baby, gone. Oh, sure, on an early November B.C. trip, he said he’d have something to say when all the evidence was in – except, the evidence is all in, and he still hasn’t said anything to defend the convoy-ers.

The Conservative leader did say one thing that was interesting, however, when touring the Left Coast. Poilievre said he “condemned” anyone who “broke laws, behaved badly, or blockaded critical infrastructure.”

“Behaved badly.” Which, of course, was pretty much all of them. You don’t get to hold a major city hostage for weeks in the name of “freedom” and then get a gold star, boys and girls. Ditto crippling border trade, or any of the other clearly-bad behaviour.

So, why was Poilievre smart to abandon Tamara Lich and her bridesmaids – Chris Barber, Pat King, James Bauder and Benjamin Dichter – at the altar? Well, Nanos has the answer.

KINSELLA: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith picking fight with Canada to get re-elected

KINSELLA: Trudeau, Poilievre score wins at Emergencies Act inquiry

The pollster did a poll, released this week, and found that nearly 70 per cent of Canadians fully supported the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act. Fifty per cent said the inquiry left them with an even worse impression of the convoy participants.

And the Poilievre Conservatives’ lead in the polls? Gone. Evaporated. Disappeared. As Nanos top guy, Nik Nanos, put it in an understatement for the ages: “If there continues to be a focus on the convoy … it could be a potential risk for Pierre Poilievre.”

No kidding. And you know who knows that most of all? Poilievre.

Which is why he’s ghosted the convoy folks. Which is why he’s kept quiet. Which is why he’s not dumb.

And which is why the convoy types are feeling sad and lonely, these days.

SIEG HEIL; IKEA

KINSELLA: We increasingly have a problem with extremism
Opinion by Warren Kinsella • Yesterday - TORONTO SUN

- Picture taken on December 3, 2012 shows Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad gesturing prior the inauguration of the Margaretha Kamprad Chair of Environmental Science and Limnology at the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Dec. 3, 2012

STOCKHOLM — Extremism comes on tiny feet. You almost don’t see it until it’s too late.

Take this IKEA, for example, on Regeringsgatan, near the old city of Stockholm. Here, tucked between grandiose 16th-century buildings and charming cobblestone streets, is another IKEA.

It’s just like the ones in Canada, found from Vancouver to Halifax. Everything’s the same. Same corporate colours, same stuff for sale, even the same meatballs and lingonberries. (Which are as ubiquitous as they are delicious, by the way.)

IKEA advertises everything from candles to pillows, but it doesn’t advertise one important fact: It was founded by a fellow who was an extremist. A neo-Nazi, in fact.

Oh, sure, IKEA doesn’t completely hide who their founder was. He was a genial-looking fellow named Ingvar Kamprad, who — says IKEA’s website — was “rebel-hearted.” Uh-huh. Ingvar had “a dream to create a better life for as many people as possible — whatever the size of their wallet — (which) is and will always be our driving force.”

Well, not exactly everyone.

Ingvar, who died in 2018 at the age of 91, wasn’t too fussy about foreigners, Jews and other minorities. He wasn’t so enthusiastic about “creating a better life” for them, actually. Ingvar was a member of the fascist New Swedish Movement. The IKEA website doesn’t have a whole lot of information about that.

Ingvar joined the New Swedish Movement when he was a teenager, even before he founded IKEA as a mail order company in his family’s backyard. The leader of the far-right group was rabid anti-Semite and Adolf Hitler fan Per Engdahl, who said Hitler was “God’s saviour of Europe.”

Historians record that Ingvar recruited members and raised funds for Engdahl’s pro-Nazi group, even while the Second World War was still raging. And he remained a confidante of Engdahl for many years after that.

When caught, Ingvar insisted his involvement with fascism was “a mistake.” But, in her wonderfully-titled book “Made in Sweden: How the Swedes Are Not Nearly So Egalitarian, Tolerant, Hospitable or Cozy As They Would Like to Have You Think,” author Elisabeth Asbrink wrote the Swedish security service had a bulging file on Ingvar titled “Nazi.”

And, as recently as 2010, when Canadians were still gleefully assembling IKEA bookcases with Allen keys, Ingvar told Asbrink that “Per Engdahl is a great man, and I will maintain that as long as I live.”

So, there you go. We are all sitting on couches that, at one point, funded Nazism. Extremism, in other words.

That’s relevant, these days, because there’s quite a bit of it to be seen just about everywhere you look. Not just Sweden.

Here in Sweden in September, the extremist Sweden Democrats took more than 20% of the vote in the national election, making them the second-largest party in the Riksdag legislature.

The Sweden Democrats trace their beginnings to this country’s neo-Nazi movement. They don’t particularly like Muslims or immigrants, and said during the election they favour giving foreigners “one-way tickets” back to Kabul.

To the extent that the world pays any attention whatsoever to Swedes who don’t play hockey, the huge success of a political party with actual pro-Nazi roots went more or less unnoticed. How come?

Well, because the beast is awake everywhere, pretty much. Extremism is to be seen in a lot of surprising places, these days.

Not, we hasten to say, in the policies of the parties led by Justin Trudeau or Pierre Poilievre or Jagmeet Singh. Not even in Poilievre’s Conservative Party, which may be conservative, but is on record as favouring the admission of more immigrants — and at a faster pace, too.

No, extremism is seen in less-visible ways.

When some people wave around a swastika flag during the Ottawa occupation, for example, and nobody does a damn thing to take it away from them. Or when white supremacist members of Diagolon are caught heading to the Coutts, Alta., border crossing with a cache of weapons, allegedly to murder police, and people shrug.

Or even when the richest man in the world gives a rabid anti-Semite like Kanye West back his Twitter account. After he said he was going to go “Def Con” on Jews. Or how Twitter blithely allows extremist threats against my Postmedia colleagues, and other journalists, all the time. All that.

So, we should probably give the Swedes a break, the fascist leanings of IKEA’s founder notwithstanding. They’ve got a problem with extremism, yes.

And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we increasingly do, too.

KINSELLA: Remember hockey's just a game and our kids won't make the NHL

Opinion by Warren Kinsella - Toronto Sun

Ice Technician Ryan Smith (with hose) and Blayne Sproule prepare the ice over top of a Team Canada logo on the Calgary Flames locker room on Aug 21/ 09 as Hockey Canada prepares to take over the Pengrowth Saddledome for the team Canada Olympic Camp next week.


Three hockey truths.

One, our kids are never going to play in the NHL.

Two, it’s just a game.

Three, our kids are never ever going to play in the NHL.

I’ve got four kids, three boys and a girl. All of them played hockey. I spent a lot of time in cold hockey rinks over the years. Those three points above were my motto.

I was one of those hockey dads who wouldn’t say much. If the kids scored a goal, I’d clap. If the team needed a sponsor, I’d be it. If someone needed a ride, on either team, I’d give it.

Every once in a while, I’d be standing beside a dad, or a mom, who was not setting a good example. You know: the parents who would scream at the kids, or the officials, or the coaches. The ones who thought their little angel was going to play in the NHL. The jerks.

So, I’d sidle up beside the loud parents — I stand 6-foot-5 in my Doc Martens, and I usually was wearing a biker jacket and a punk rock T-shirt with an offensive band name on it — and I’d quietly remind them of the three points above. They’d look a bit uneasy. Then I’d move on.

The people who ran Hockey Canada — now blessedly gone — remind me of those parents. Hanging out in rinks, bossing people around, clueless about the harm they were causing: that was the leadership at Hockey Canada.

The loud parents and the ex-execs at Hockey Canada share one other character flaw, too: they were apparently always willing to excuse, and cover up, any and all sorts of misconduct with the use of non-disclosure agreements when settling sexual assault cases. Because, they thought, they were sending the kids to the big show.

Except they weren’t. Instead, they were teaching the kids — young males, almost entirely — that any type of wrongdoing, even criminal, was fine. As long as they were devoted to the game.

As noted, however: it’s just a dumb game. Hell, it’s not even Canada’s game anymore. No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since 1993. So much for the national pride exemption.

It’s a game, mom and dad. It’s a game, Hockey Canada white-washers. It’s a game mainly for kids. Chasing a lump of vulcanized rubber across frozen ponds with some wooden sticks.

The bad parents, and the bad Hockey Canada execs, lost sight of that. They believe and believed they are/were on some higher mission. That they were in pursuit of some higher divine purpose, all truth and decency be damned.

But, but. When the boy-men start to get charged criminally with sexual assault and assault and gang rape, will the bad parents and the bad Hockey Canada people wake up from their infantile fantasy on skates? Probably not.

If you are willing to overlook rape, and gang rape, you’ll probably forgive anything. But at that point, you’re not just a hockey mom or dad or more. You’re not just an executive who has selflessly devoted yourself to the national game.

You’re beneath contempt, and you don’t belong near any hockey rink, hurting some kids who are just trying to have fun — chasing a bit of vulcanized rubber and a dream of new friends and laughter.

KINSELLA: If Sandy Hook massacre failed to change U.S. attitude on guns, nothing will

Warren Kinsella - Saturday, June 11,2022
Toronto Sun

Dear America:

For starters, let me say this: I love Americans, and I love America.

Mostly. Sometimes.

There’s lots to love. Your people are open and gregarious and irrepressible. Your country is bountiful and diverse and full of promise.

And some of us Canadians become Americans, or have family and friends in your country. Personally, I lived there, in Dallas, Texas. Can still recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Can still remember my family’s Dallas phone number (FL1-6325). In no small measure, we are part of you, and you us.

For us Canadians, in the big drafty room above yours, we are immensely grateful that you shield us from the despots and monsters found in other places, with increasing regularity these days. You protect us. We know that.

But when it comes to protecting yourselves? You’re not so good at that.

And I don’t just mean the insurrection provoked by Donald Trump, now being documented at the House of Representatives’ House Select Committee investigation of the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Or the cleavage in your politics, wherein Left and Right are orbiting ever-further apart. Or your class wars, which are happening all the time, about everything.

Because we Canadians, if we are being honest with ourselves — and we often are not — have had violent attacks on our places of governance, too. We had one in 2014, when a madman killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo, and stormed Parliament, and shot the place up. And we have a cleavage in our politics, too — with a Liberal Prime Minister who has crafted a crypto-socialist Axis of Weasels deal on one side and, on the other side, a Conservative Party in a headlong rush to the outer reaches of the fringe Right, where conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and Pierre Poilievre congregate.

And class wars? We have those too. We fight about stupid, inconsequential stuff, too, and we miss out on the big picture. Guilty.

But in one thing, America, you have us beat. In one thing, you are the undisputed world champions. And that thing, of course, is ritual suicide by firearm. In that category, you are Number One — with a bullet, you might say.

Reciting the grim statistics to you is a waste of time. It hasn’t stopped or even slowed down your descent into the slaughterhouse. Appealing to your better nature hasn’t worked, either: forests have been felled in the United States, to print up well-meaning and heart-rending pleas for sanity.

And you keep doing what you do. Which is kill each other.

Ask Jesse Lewis.

Jesse Lewis had wanted to be in the army. He was tough, but with a gentle side. Whenever he could, he favoured ripped jeans and a T-shirt — nothing fancy. He was raised on a farm, after all, with horses, dogs, and chickens. He was brave, too.

When the shooting started, on Dec. 14, 2012, Jesse Lewis saw the killer pause to reload. He yelled at those around him — nine of them — to “run.” They did.

The killer saw, reloaded, and shot Jesse Lewis in the head, killing him.

Jesse Lewis’ name should be familiar to you — because Jesse Lewis was just six years old. He was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut. On the day Jesse was murdered, 19 other first-graders were slaughtered. Six women, too.

Here’s the thing, America: you cannot claim to be the leader of the free world – you cannot claim to be “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” – when something like the Sandy Hook massacre happens, and you do precisely nothing about it. You can’t.

The rest of us mostly admire you and like you. We do. But if you didn’t change after Sandy Hook?

If you didn’t change after that — you never, ever will.

Yours sincerely,

Etc.

KINSELLA: Jason Kenney ouster doesn't bode well for federal Conservatives

Warren Kinsella - 

Toronto Sun

© Provided by Toronto Sun

Jason Kenney meets supporters after speaking at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Wither thou goest, Conservatives, in thine dark blue car at night?

Sorry to get all Jack Kerouac on y’all, but that little line from On The Road kind of fits, doesn’t it? I mean, after Conservatives committed ritual mass political suicide on Wednesday night — in the Conservative heartland, no less — it is fair for the rest of us to wonder: What the hell?

Jason Kenney — he who was Stephen Harper’s right hand, he who delivered the elusive ethnic vote and a majority, he who united the warring factions of the right and defeated the socialists — is gone. It is mindboggling.

As my colleague Brian Lilley put it to a few of us at the Sun: “Jason Kenney not being conservative enough for Alberta? The implications for the federal leadership race are huge.”

And Lilley is indisputably right. Kenney’s conservative credentials were impeccable. Nobody in Western Canada worked harder to advance the interests of Team Blue. And in Ottawa, Kenney was feared and respected — and could always be counted on to be the happy warrior for his side.

As premier, Kenney waged endless war with Liberal Justin Trudeau, or cheered on other Conservative politicians, or travelled tirelessly — just a few days ago to Washington, to advocate for Canadian energy — to push for policies that conservatives favoured.

So what happened? How can Conservatives win, as Lilley noted, if even Kenney isn’t good enough?
DUMBFOUNDED

As a member of the Alberta diaspora, I was and am dumbfounded by Kenney’s ouster. Kenney possesses a brilliant, agile political mind. He always seemed to be several steps ahead of his opponents.

And now, this, and his career is in ruins. Was it because the UCP malcontents felt he had become, in Preston Manning’s words, “Ottawashed,” and out of touch with his home province?

Was it because he was one of those politicians — like Paul Martin, say, or Al Gore — who needed a stronger, savvier boss in charge? Without Harper around, Kenney never seemed to be entirely what he had been. Or could have been.

Was it because Conservatives in Alberta have utterly lost any discipline? That they lack self-control and common sense?

INSUFFICIENTLY CONSERVATIVE?

Or was it because — as Lilley suggests — Kenney, of all people, was seen as insufficiently conservative? Was it because Kenney wasn’t right-wing enough?

If so, conservatives — federally, at least — are doomed. Kenney was a real-deal Tory. If Alberta Conservatives want someone even more to the right, they’ll perhaps get it. But they won’t get the support of most Canadian voters.

Voters, too, will be unimpressed by this latest conservative blood-letting. The federal Conservative leadership candidates were bad enough — smearing each other, calling each other liars, accusing each other of scandal and law-breaking.

But this? Jason Kenney led a majority government, and polls suggested he had a reasonable shot at re-election. To jettison him now doesn’t mean that he wasn’t good enough — it means that a lot of Alberta Conservatives have lost their minds. And their once-sterling commitment to political discipline.

Which leads us back to that first question.

Whither thou goest, Conservatives, in thine dark blue car at night?

From here, it looks like you are heading for the ditch.

WARREN KINSELLA IS A LAWYER, FORMER LIBERAL STRATEGIST,PUNK ROCKER, FORMER CALGARIAN, BLOGGER AND ZIONIST APOLOGIST 

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KINSELLA: Overturning Roe v. Wade will have big Canadian political consequences

Do you think Trudeau will ever hesitate to use a divisive social issue to pulverize his Conservative opponents?

Author of the article: Warren Kinsella
Publishing date: May 03, 2022 •

TORONTO SUN

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference at the Stellantis Automotive Research and Development Centre in Windsor, Ont. on Monday, May 2, 2022. 

PHOTO BY GEOFF ROBINS /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Think the U.S. Supreme Court decision to outlaw abortion is irrelevant to Canada?

Think again.

Because Politico’s bombshell revelation Monday night — a leak of a draft opinion of America’s highest court on the seminal decision that legalized abortion in the United States, Roe v. Wade — is going to have profound consequences for many politicians. On both sides of the border.

In the U.S., overturning Roe v. Wade isn’t a political earthquake — it is bigger than that. It’s something beyond description. It’s akin to the shifting of political tectonic plates.

Among other things, it will lead to many Democratic Party victories in the coming mid-terms. That’s important, because Joe Biden was heading to an electoral pounding in November. No longer: He now has a wedge that will hasten the end of Republican careers.

It’ll lead to demands — which Biden may grant, after the mid-terms — to enlarge the high court and load it up with progressive jurists. That’s a given.

And how Politico got their hands on a draft Supreme Court opinion? That’s big, too. The resulting inquiries will certainly preoccupy lawyers and politicos (and maybe detectives) for years to come. Why? Because such a leak is something that has never, ever happened before. It means the Supreme Court justices are at war with each other, basically.

But overturning Roe v. Wade won’t just shake up American politics. It is going to have big political consequences up here, too.

Because if you think Justin Trudeau will hesitate to use abortion against his conservative opponents, you are dreaming in Technicolor. Abortion is the ultimate political wedge — one that mobilizes most Canadian women, of all stripes, to vote to maintain control over their bodies.

For Pierre Poilievre, the frontrunner in the Conservative Party leadership race, the return of the abortion debate is very, very unhelpful. For years, the Ottawa-area MP has enjoyed the support of the Campaign Life Coalition, the powerful lobby group that wants to outlaw abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia.

Federal Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre holds a campaign rally in Toronto, Saturday, April 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

On its web site, the Campaign Life Coalition gave approving green check marks to Poilievre for voting for bills that would make it an offence to “kill or injure a pre-born child” — and to “protect women from coercion to abort.” For most of his political career, Poilievre has opposed abortion, full stop.

Only very recently — as the prospect of seizing the Conservative leadership grew larger — did Poilievre abandon his previous positions on abortion and gay marriage, thereby angering the Campaign Life Coalition. But, under his leadership, he still admits he would permit MPs to bring forward laws to criminalize abortion.

That matters. Because, even if Poilievre has magically experienced a whiplash-inducing reversal on abortion, the likes of MP Leslyn Lewis have not. Lewis is a social conservative extremist — and her presence in the upper ranks of the leadership contenders can’t be dismissed. Lewis doesn’t hide her opposition to abortion, saying: (There’s) nothing hidden about it.”

Exasperated conservatives will point out, correctly, that conservative jurists do not presently dominate on the Canadian Supreme Court. They will say, correctly, that neither Stephen Harper nor Brian Mulroney rigged our highest court with social conservatives.

But do you think Trudeau will ever hesitate to use a divisive social issue to pulverize his Conservative opponents? In 2015, 2019 and 2021, did the Liberal leader ever seem reluctant to beat Tories with whatever club was laying nearby, however cynical that may be?

No and no. Trudeau has used abortion to hobble Conservatives before, and he’ll do so again. The reversal of Roe v. Wade guarantees it.

On Monday night, you could almost hear the corks being popped on the Veuve Clicquot at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Because abortion is back.

And abortion kills — Tory political careers.

KINSELLA IS A FORMER LIBERAL PARTY STRATEGIST AND CONSULTANT 

Conservatives MPs told to stay silent about draft suggesting Roe vs. Wade could be overturned

It’s also not unusual for MPs to be instructed not to comment on international issues that have no immediate implications for Canada.

By Stephanie Levitz

Ottawa Bureau

TORONTO STAR
Tue., May 3, 2022


OTTAWA—Conservatives MPs are being told to stay silent about a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision suggesting that nation’s top court is poised to overturn the landmark abortion rights case Roe vs. Wade.

A “note to caucus” was sent from interim Opposition Leader Candice Bergen’s communications staff early Tuesday morning, as the world was abuzz with news of both the contents of the draft ruling and the unprecedented leak itself.

“Good morning,” reads the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Star.

“Conservatives will not be commenting on draft rulings leaked from the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Such notes to any party’s caucus are not uncommon, as MPs are often provided talking points or lines to give in response to issues of the day.


It’s also not unusual for MPs to be instructed not to comment on international issues that have no immediate implications for Canada.

But the debate over how far the state ought to go to regulate access to abortion is an active one within Canadian Conservative circles.

Conservative MPs routinely introduce private members’ bills that seek to regulate or restrict abortion.

In the last session of Parliament, Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall introduced one to make it a crime to deliberately end a pregnancy due to the sex of the fetus, a practice known as sex-selective abortion.

Eighty of her fellow Conservatives MPs voted in favour of the bill, 38 against. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois were all against it, and it failed to move ahead in the legislative process.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are in the midst of a leadership race where just Monday, two candidates being supported by the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition were told they were not eligible to run, a decision the CLC linked directly to their politics.

The party disputes that allegation.

“Final verification was based on the requirements set out under the rules, not any prospective candidate’s political beliefs,” the party’s executive director Wayne Benson said in a statement late Monday.

Of the six candidates officially in the running for leadership, only one, Leslyn Lewis, has introduced policy promises to restrict access to abortion in Canada.

If she became prime minister, she is promising to ban abortions based on gender, criminalize what she calls coerced abortions, end funding for overseas abortion programs and increase funding for pregnancy centres.

Lewis is also the MP for the riding of Haldimand-Norfolk, a riding she won last year following her effort to become leader of the Conservative party in 2020.

The draft Supreme Court decision in a Mississippi abortion case was reported by Politico late Monday.

In effect, it states there is no constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.

It’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter — opinions often change in ways big and small in the drafting process.

Jason Kenney's rotten record of COVID chaos has finally become an issue in the federal election

David J. Climenhaga

September 15, 2021

So it's come to this: Jason Kenney has become an issue in the federal election. 

All that effort keeping his head down for all but a couple of days over the past five weeks while Alberta's health care system appeared to fall apart, and here we are.

Canadians are going to have to pay attention to that premier behind the curtain.

At a campaign stop in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointed to federal Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole's past enthusiasm for Alberta's now clearly catastrophic approach to COVID-19.

"He thinks Jason Kenney is the model to follow on fighting COVID?" 

Trudeau paused disgustedly, twice, in that short rhetorical question to emphasize what he thinks of his challenger's now-seldom-mentioned bromance with Kenney. 

"The approach in Alberta hasn't worked for Albertans. It's hurting the Alberta economy, and hurting the people who did the right thing in Alberta, and did get vaccinated, because they're looking at more lockdowns, more restrictions."

You can hear the call of a seagull as the PM pauses in a clip circulating on social media last night.

"And people think that it'd be a good idea to have Erin O'Toole sitting across from Jason Kenney when it comes to finishing this pandemic? 

"That'd be bad not just for Albertans but for everyone in the country!"

Here in Alberta -- sensing the growing panic as mobs of anti-vaccine fanatics encouraged by some UCP MLAs assail hospital workers, ICU beds fill to capacity, and no leader emerges from Kenney's paralyzed cabinet -- it's very hard to quibble with the PM's assessment.

Well, but for one small point. We've never had a lockdown in this province. 

If Kenney, his incoherently babbling health minister and his chief medical officer of health had been brave enough to impose one, chances are good we wouldn't be where we are now in this awful fall that has followed the Best Summer Ever the premier foolishly promised us last July. 

In a virtual meeting with Alberta doctors Monday evening, Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw confessed she deeply regretted her guess that while COVID cases propelled by the Delta variant might soar, we wouldn't see the bodies piling up. 

Within a couple of weeks, she admitted in the chilly language of bureaucracy, "we weren't seeing the decoupling we'd expected."

"I deeply regret how that has played out," she went on. "I do continue to do my best every day to provide my advice to the proxy decision makers for my patients, who are the elected officials."

The proxy decision makers for my patients? Say what? 

Mount Royal University political science professor Duane Bratt, popular with Alberta media for his blunt commentary, spoke for a lot of Albertans when he suggested not just Hinshaw, but a whole herd of the feckless Conservatives she advised, including Health Minister Tyler Shandro, should hang their heads and resign.

"Alberta, based on ICU numbers, is being hit harder right now than at any time during the pandemic," Bratt said yesterday in a tweet thread.

"Where is the policy learning? Why the cherry-picking of the most optimistic data and scenario?

"Having Hinshaw apologize is a step forward. But real accountability would be the Premier appearing in public to accept responsibility (instead of hiding). And changing the people who were making these bad decisions. Decisions that are killing people.

"Why hasn't Hinshaw resigned? Why hasn't Shandro resigned? Why aren't members of the cabinet…resigning on a point of principle?

"Most importantly why hasn't Kenney resigned after bungling the second wave, the third wave, and especially the fourth wave? Who demonized critics. Who took the most optimistic path. Who blamed others."

Bratt concluded: "When is it enough?"

With these guys? Maybe never. Or maybe the divisions in the UCP cabinet and caucus, which met yesterday with no significant leaks, are deep enough now someone on the right side of public health will stand up on principle. 

Kenney was scheduled to travel to Fort McMurray today to address an oilsands trade show. That would have provided a public opportunity for him to respond to the prime minister's comments with a defence of his COVID response, or to tell Albertans how his government plans lead us out of this mess it's created. 

The premier's travel plans have been canceled, his office said. 

Later this week you'll be able to print out an unconvincing paper vaccination record

Much was made yesterday of Health Minister Tyler Shandro's announcement that "Albertans can soon get their proof of vaccination on a new convenient card-sized printout through MyHealth Records."

Still bobbing and weaving to avoid being accused of creating a vaccine passport by the UCP's anti-vaccine base, later this week you'll be able to print out an unconvincing looking piece of paper with your COVID vaccine record on it, the announcement said in the gee-whiz tones typical of Alberta government press releases.

That is, if you can manage to sign in to the MyHealth system, which by the sound of it was on the verge of collapse itself last night. 

The UCP, of course, plans to download the unpleasant job of enforcing sensible restrictions on unvaccinated people onto private businesses -- which means there will be no restrictions at all.

"Work is also underway to make proof of vaccination available through a QR code," the news release went on. "The QR code is expected to be available in the coming weeks."

Does anyone remember Alberta TraceTogether, the barely functional contact-tracing app the Alberta government got someone to cobble together and released in May 2020?

No one ever fixed it. It's now just a forgotten piece of digital history, lingering unused on a few smartphones.

As for the QR code, believe it when you see it. And don't count on having your self-printed vaccination record taken seriously outside Alberta. 

David Climenhaga, author of the Alberta Diary blog, is a journalist, author, journalism teacher, poet and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions at The Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald.

FROM THE RIGHT

THE ALBERTA FACTOR: Is Jason Kenney's COVID mess going to impact the  Federal election?
Author of the article: Postmedia News

Publishing date: Sep 17, 2021 •

WATCH BELOW as the Sun’s Editor-in-Chief Adrienne Batra talks with Sun political columnists Lorrie Goldstein, Brian Lilley and Warren Kinsella on whether the COVID situation in Alberta will impact the federal election.