Justin Trudeau's Values-less Post-Nationalism

"The money moving through these underground casinos leads to huge profits for criminals that fund other ventures such as prostitution and drug trafficking."

"This $9 million Decourcy Court palace in #Markham was the site of a high-end illegal casino and spa operation recently shut down by @YRP investigators as part of Project Endgame. More at http://yrp.ca/Endgame."                                               York Regional Police

Police executed a search warrant at a home in Markham, Ont., being operated as a high-end illegal casino on July 23, 2020. Photo by York Regional Police

York Regional police raided a palatial mansion this summer owned by a Toronto-area real estate developer who had transformed the lavishly-appointed 20,000 sq/ft mansion to an illegal 'underground' gambling casino he named the Mackenzie No5 Club. The owner of the mansion/club moved within influential political and social circles in Canada, in his role as an advocate for China. And as a China advocate he had the ear of Prime Minster Justin Trudeau, having met him on several occasions, at Liberal fundraisers where China advocates were the fundraising organizers.

These funding organizers were wealthy entrepreneurs. Wei-Wei, the casino owner, was among four delegates representing an industry group endorsed by the Chinese government, that met privately with Justin Trudeau as lobbyists and fundraisers. They came complete with gifts; one of the delegation members conspicuously donating $1 million to the Trudeau Foundation, and to fund a statue in honour of Justin Trudeau's father Pierre Elliott, the former Canadian prime minister who had initiated close relations with China during his governing mandate.

 

When the police began their raid they were met with armed guards opposing their entry. The presence of the casino was not exactly unknown. On its inauguration hundreds of invitees attended, among them a number of local politicians. Wei-Wei, the head of Skywalk Investment who arrived in Canada in 2010 as an investor-immigrant, serves on a committee of the Canada-China Realty Professional Association whose mission is to encourage development and investment opportunities in both countries. In the raid, police confiscated gambling paraphernalia, weapons, and $1 million in cash.

Wei Wei, far left, at a 2016 meeting between delegates of the Chinese government-run China Cultural Industry Association and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo by China Cultural Industry Association

It all sounds fairly normal, the establishing of good relations between two countries. However, there are complications; business may be brisk and trade satisfactory, but diplomatically there is an icy chill, with a number of Canadians being held in Chinese prisons on malevolently contrived charges of espionage. While Huawei's CEO is held on a warrant for extradition from the U.S., on bail, living in one of her own Vancouver mansions, challenging the extradition.

 

China characterizes her detention as illegal and against international law, threatening reprisals related to the non-release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, along with two other Canadians sentenced to death for drug smuggling. Chinese law and justice holds these Canadians incommunicado without legal representation to challenge the trumped-up charges. Canada has appealed to the international community of democratic nations to exert pressure on China for the release of these Canadians in Chinese prisons.

 

Which has produced precisely nothing. But steps that the government of Canada could itself take, such as using the Magnitsky Law to sanction specific Chinese government figures, such as disinvesting from China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, such as stating unequivocally that Huawei will not be granted permission to be involved in Canada's 5G upgrade like the rest of the Five Eyes group, to exert its own pressure on China in a convincing show of rejecting Beijing's bullying, have not been taken. 

 

Beijing excels in threats and bullying, witness its territorial disputes with India in the Himalaya, its encroachment of its fishing fleet on territorial waters of other nations, its artificial islands construction in the South China Sea in disputed areas where military bases have been erected. Its treatment of Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans represent the very essence of human rights abuse. China's economy has been restored while the rest of the world's is in disarray, thanks to Beijing's lack of responsibility with COVID-19.

 

The government led by the Liberals under Justin Trudeau prefers to do business with China as though relations between the two countries are just fine. Chinese-Canadians are harassed and threatened by others within their own communities loyal to Beijing for criticizing China. Having come to Canada as immigrants and refugees to escape Beijing, Beijing follows them in Canada through its Bureau of the United Front Work Department, a propaganda and coercion tool interfering in Canadian sovereignty.

 

But all is not lost. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds great solace in the fact that while Canadian trade with its European free trade partners has been hampered and reduced by all the problems associated with the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, its trade with China is going swimmingly. Shipments between China and Canada are sustained, though slumped with Canada's other major trading partners. Total exports and imports with China now represent 6.9 percent of Canada's global merchandise trade on a year-to-date basis.

 

Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien's energetic, self-serving obsequious pandering to Chinese trade and investment, his trade missions undertaken while head of government, and following his election loss when he represented a high-profile law firm in China, paved the way for Canadian entry into the coveted Chinese market with its purchasing power all related to its huge size, appetite for raw resources and energy products and an immense population with an appetite for tourism. 

 

According to data released recently by Statistics Canada, the trade exchange between the two countries has reached the highest point on record, and moving ever forward, irrespective of the torn and tawdry diplomatic relations. A government that extols its virtuous embrace of human rights and concern for the welfare of all, characterizing itself as the first 'post-national' country in the world, has seen no contradiction in abandoning principles, dignity, honour and the moral high ground to the highest bidder.