Smile, You're on Candid Camera, Canada!

"Among the several commitments Canada has made to Qatar in the hopes of convincing the Gulf autocracy's ruling Al Thani family to double down on its energy investments in Canada is a June 25 memorandum of understanding between Canada's Public Safety ministry and Qatar's Internal Security Force. It's also under wraps, like the RCMP agreement with Beijing's Public Security ministry."

"The deal is supposed to extend Canada's co-operation on a variety of law enforcement portfolios, including money laundering, financial crime and terrorism."

"This will be unavoidably awkward, owing to the Al Thani family's conviction that the terrorist front Hamas, the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, is merely a national liberation movement."

"Qatar is already notorious in Canada's national security circles for the hundreds of millions of dollars it lavishes on the Muslim Brotherhood and its Canadian fronts and affiliates."

Terry Glavin, journalist, National Post  

Carney is greeted by Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as he arrives to Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

Canada is at an impasse in attempting to deal with mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, wedded to the big stick he wields with wild abandon, striking friend and foe alike with threatening tariffs geared to make them tremble in trepidation over the suddenly-wobbly state of their economy. The entire world economy is shaken to its foundations when America suddenly becomes unreliable, both in its trade and commerce cooperation with allies and competitors alike, ditching diplomacy for belligerence in expressions of bad faith and contempt toward other nations.

 

"I like this guy!" CBC

 

Trade dependency on a geographic neighbour may make common sense when one country is viewed as the junior, valued for its abundance of natural resources, prepared to continue its trade relationship with the other whose appetite for energy and mineral extraction is boundless. The exchange of raw resources with finished products has always been reflected in the trade relationship. Advanced to the junior partner in later decades through the sharing of production to the benefit of both. 

 

Canada's standard of living reliant on the good graces of its neighbour, received a shock when that neighbour suddenly began growling and grumbling about being taken for granted, insufficiently adored for its generosity, and become fed up with being milked in unfair trade practises. And the trade deficit!!!Then the junior reeled back in dismay at the very pronouncements of a trade-enforced geographic-sovereign-lost-merger, genially imposed by its powerful neighbour. 

 

Trade-diversion and -diversity imposed becoming the order of the day, the month, the year, stretching into infinity. Pierre Elliott Trudeau back in the distant past embarked on a similar adventure, but it somehow never progressed to the point of being. Canada's new foreign-policy trade agreements under current prime minister Mark Carney, a self-professed economic genius, now has his turn. Jean Chretien in his day made frequent exploratory-trade visits to China with a full regalia of government ministers and corporate elites in tow.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Diana Fox Carney disembark a government plane in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

 

In a year-and-a-half, Mr. Carney and his ministers have gone to 29 foreign capitals to drum up trade agreements with countries Canada has much in common with; Liberal democracies, and unsavoury others as well. He launched a "new world order" partnership with China, opening Canadian manufacturing and vehicle production in particular, to the trade-predatory Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. Taking no notice at the same time of China's human rights record on Tibet and Xinjiang.

 

China's predation is right out there in plain sight; countries that have imported cheaply-produced Chinese products valued by global consumers for their low prices have seen their own industries eviscerated,  unable to complete with the low wages and CCP subsidies to make Chinese goods preferable to their own. Europe's vast trade deficit with China was exemplified by the president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China commenting on the situation comparing it to a "400-metre-long giant container ship loaded with 24,000 containers going to Europe, and coming back almost empty". 

 

Mark Carney — pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping — reached a 'landmark' trade deal with China. (Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters)

 

Volkswagen's plans to rescue its Osnabruck plant along with 2,300 jobs y converting to production of components for Israel's Iron Dome defence system met a roadblock when Qatar objected, since the Qatari sovereign wealth fund purchased 10.4 percent of Volkswagen shares and 17 percent of its voting rights. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey is another potential trade partner for Canada under Mr. Carney's wide-ranging plans of rescue from the American trade orbit. 

 

Turkey's Erdogan is committed to the reestablishment of a Global Caliphate. Achieved perhaps, in a trifle more sophisticated way -- without the beheadings and crucifixions seen exercised by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but equally devoted to its inevitability, with the considerable assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood globally, and regionally the MB offshoot, Hamas in Gaza. Only two weeks earlier Mr. Carney announced Ottawa's negotiations with Ankara toward a free trade agreement.   

"Last year, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy [ISGAP] published an in-depth study of the reach of Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada, recommending that Canada's intelligence agencies keep much closer tabs on Qatar's promotion of extremist ideology and support for extremist organizations in Canada:

"'It is imperative to assess their level of penetration, areas of influence, and long-term goals in order to effectively manage the risks posed to Canada' [ISGAP]."

Terry Glavin  

Another opportunity for Canada's Liberal Carney government arose with discussions on a free trade agreement with the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of which Myanmar is a member, albeit a police state. Myanmar is listed among three other countries -- Iran and North Korea -- on the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force. Details, inconvenient details, so inconsequential, no need to bother with them. 

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gifted Prime Minister Mark Carney and other NATO leaders a custom revolver with each recipient's name engraved on the barrel during the alliance's summit in Ankara, Turkey. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

 

"So it's all well and good for Canada to be looking for deep-pocketed police state investors and maybe even some customers beyond the United States, at least for now."

"But the lasting damage to Canada's national security, diplomatic sovereignty, moral conscience, democratic alliances and international reputation might also be taken into account from time to time."

Terry Glavin, journalist extraordinaire, National Post