The New World Order

"Now it's clear, Vance's speech in Munich and the many tweets of President Trump have become official doctrine of the United States, and we must act accordingly."

"[Europe must understand that postwar alliances] have changed [ and to be read to] protect ourselves not only against our adversaries, but also against the allies who challenge us."

"What we cannot accept is this threat of interference in Europe's political life."

"The United States cannot replace European citizens in choosing which are the right parties and which are the wrong parties."

European Council President Antonio Costa 

 

"There is a growing recognition that their strategy did not work."

"It's becoming clearer that, obviously, it's expressed by the Trump administration, but there seems to be a bigger MAGA sort of world view in which Europe is identified as Public Enemy No. 1."

Nathalie Tocci, director, Institute for International Affairs, Rome

 

"On the question of Europe and President Trump's comments, what I see is a strong Europe, united behind Ukraine and united behind our longstanding values of freedom and democracy."

"And I will always stand up for those values and those freedoms."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer  

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a joint news conference following their meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. (Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS )

 

Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP—down from 25 percent
in 1990 to 14 percent today—partly owing to national and transnational regulations
that undermine creativity and industriousness.
But this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of
civilizational erasure. The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the
European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and
sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating
strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering
birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.
Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or
less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have
economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies. Many of these
nations are currently doubling down on their present path. We want Europe to
remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its
failed focus on regulatory suffocation.
This lack of self-confidence is most evident in Europe’s relationship with Russia.
European allies enjoy a significant hard power advantage over Russia by almost
every measure, save nuclear weapons. As a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine,
European relations with Russia are now deeply attenuated, and many Europeans
regard Russia as an existential threat. Managing European relations with Russia
will require significant U.S. diplomatic engagement, both to reestablish conditions
of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of
conflict between Russia and European states.
It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of
hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent
unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability
with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to
enable its survival as a viable state.

National Security Strategy of the United States of America, November 2025 

 

 

Across the  pond, European leaders are furiously debating the new American national security strategy, in particular that portion that focuses on Europe and consigns it to a fast-fade  into past history, berating it for not paying sufficient attention to its immigration policies and positing that Europe is on its way to losing all it holds dear, its history, culture, values. Yet, since America is so besotted with Europe it still hopes it can 'regain its civilizational self-confidence', so there is yet hope for poor, degraded, fumbling and weak Europe. 

 

The offending document, according to European officials, has made formal policy from the Trump administration's critiques of European democracies. In very particular, Europe has been no  help to the White House in its selfless bid to stop the war in Ukraine. A Ukraine, by Mr. Trump's reckoning that deserves to forfeit great chunks of its territory because it was too weak to defend itself from the  territorial imperative of a strong neighbour, attached to a man whom Mr. Trump admires. 

 

If Europe, much less the world at large, does not yet know that Donald J. Trump, president of the great United States of America has a keen admiration for strongmen, then perhaps there is no hope for any nation or nations that haven't yet grasped that they must counter a force of the nature of a man who sees much to admire in autocrats, dictators, even terrorists. Say, for example, President Trump's accommodation with such global menaces as Russia's Vladimir Putin, North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Syria's new president Ahmed al-Sharaa (a 'nice' young man).

 

Alluding disparagingly to the presence of malign Middle East actors in Europe who have immigrated, migrated, refugee'd themselves throughout France, Britain and Germany to dilute and imperil by sheer force of numbers in their genteel jihad of citizen-occupation as the death knell of Europe proceeds, President Trump conveniently overlooks the very fact that the United States of America has a more-than ample presence of the same in a stealth yet observable quotient, where even some infamously virulent anti-American Somalis and Palestinians have been voted into Congress.

 

It is the stinging rejection of European powers to the U.S. 'peace plan' for Ukraine that generates much of the current umbrage by the American president to Europe, which has made its way into the national security strategy, alongside the disregard that exudes from some key members of the Trump administration who have little but contempt for their European counterparts. Understandably, Ukraine rejects outright the brilliant plan brought to him courtesy of Mr. Trump, to demean himself and his nation by handing over territory to a rapacious enemy.

 

Strangely enough, Europe, fearing Vladimir Putin's greedy eye, has no wish to be party to rewarding him for his invasion of a neighbour, by supporting the 'peace plan', which is, after all, a complete repudiation of Ukraine's human rights and international right  to sovereign protection. Downplaying NATO, and forcing the defence alliance to exclude Ukraine in the future, sternly advising that there be no NATO presence to guarantee a post-peace security for Ukraine, is in actual fact, Vladimir Putin's terms to end its vicious war, along with an insistence on Ukraine agreeing on reducing its military and armaments. 

 

Then there are strictly financial/economic considerations; Europe has no 'right' to fine powerful and intrusive social media giants; after all, who do they think they are to interfere with American reach and profit? The American technology industry is answerable only to the United States, not to the European Union, and if Europe doesn't believe  Mr. Trump, then Elon Musk's voice should surely make them tremble as he recommends their abolition.

 

Europe, still in a state of disbelief over Vice-President JD Vance's February speech at the Munich Security Conference -- accusing governments in Europe of censoring political opponents, the far right in particular through the restriction of hate speech, and they created 'horrors' through the acceptance of too many immigrants -- recognize that earlier attack as a forerunner of the new national security document. Injury after penalty, following on the surprise imposition of punitive tariffs in trade with the U.S. A U.S. at war with its own Democratic opposition party, fully invested itself in far-right ideology.

 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz chat outside 10 Downing Street following a meeting, in London on Dec. 8. (Adrian Dennis/Pool/Reuters)

"[The U.S. strategy describes the continent as] the only world region apparently in which democracy is under threat [and] buys into a narrative [on Russia, which has blamed Europeans for its war in Ukraine]."

"The whole thing is completely, I mean, off the bender."

Nathalie Tocci 

Behavioural Cultural Norms Incompatible with Western Society

"She wanted him to drive her home from a party she'd attended. Rather than take her home, the offender drove her to an empty parking lot."

"He told her they would have fun. He parked the car and got into the back seat. He moved closer to the victim and forcibly kissed her. He put his hand under her dress and touched her vaginal area over her underwear."

"After he tried again to kiss her and she did not respond, he moved away from her."

"She asked if he would still drive her home and he said no. She got out of the car, and he left her in the parking lot."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario courthouse

The Ontario Court of Justice in Windsor.

In an attempt to avoid being deemed 'inadmissible' to Canada for 'serious criminality' by the Immigration and Refugee Board, Uber driver Sevan Halabi of Windsor, Ontario, a permanent resident of Canada, hoped to receive a lighter sentence to avoid deportation. Permanent residents of Canada, if sentenced to over six months in prison, according to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, can be regarded as inadmissible to Canada. What Mr. Halabi, through his lawyer, sought to persuade the presiding judge was to sentence him to six months less a day plus probation. 

"It would require me to cut the sentence nearly in half, solely to assist him in avoiding future penalties. I cannot do that", responded Justice Pratt. A young woman had engaged Mr. Halabi, an Iraqi Uber driver, to drive her home from an event she had attended on October 9, 2022. Rather than take his passenger on the trip she expected, the Uber driver subjected her to a terrifying ordeal of sexual harassment, the threat of rape and violence by implication, and finally abandonment.

 

The woman's attacker was a married man with two sons, age 14 and 10. Presenting himself as a family man, Sevan Halabi's attempt at sympathy was linked to appealing for a sentence of six months less a day to avert any potential immigration consequences. The Crown had argued that Halabi merited a year in jail, and then three years of probation.

 

Born in Iraq, Halabi emigrated from his home country with his family in 2018 to Canada. Halabi is a permanent resident of Canada as a result of the criminal charge impeding an application for citizenship. His wife and children did achieve Canadian citizenship. As for the charges brought against him, Mr. Halabi maintained his innocence during an interview with the producer of a pre-sentence report.

 

Justice Pratt was informed "he regrets what happened, has learned a lesson, and that this will not happen again", the decision in the pre-sentence report conveyed too the Judge. In response, Justice Pratt said: "The offence has hindered her professional life as a teacher and her personal life as well. She is fearful and angry. She didn't know if she would be raped or killed [in Halabi's car that night], and that fear continues to impact her life", responded the Judge.

 

To further appeal for sympathy from the court, Mr. Halabi who had not been held in custody prior to his appearance at the court before the Judge, lived as he would normally with his family and decided to bring his children along for emotional impact. For the sentencing submissions he arranged for his children to be present in court. "On that point, both children were visibly upset and crying during the proceeding", observed Justice Pratt. "Respectfully, I question why they were here in the first place. It was not a case where their father was in custody and so this would have been a rare opportunity to see him in person."

 

"[Halabi] has been out of custody throughout this case and only appeared virtually from Iraq. I cannot find they were brought into the courtroom to engender sympathy from the court, but given the offender's focus on how my sentence could affect his family, that is certainly an inference available to be drawn", the Judge concluded. 

"It is troubling that sexual offences committed by professional drivers are sufficiently common that they have created their own body of case law. But that is what has happened."

"In my view ... a sentence of six months less a day for this conduct would be unfit. It would prioritize the offender's personal circumstances over the need to denounce and deter his conduct and would not be in line with relevant case law."

"It would be an inappropriate and artificial sentence imposed only to avoid legitimate consequences created by Parliament."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario Superior Court

Mohamed Al Ballouz, who now goes by the name Levana, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years for murdering a woman and two children. Photo by Court exhibit

 

This sexual assault case is but one of many where men from cultures where the place of women is subservient to that of men, religiously inspired and historically adapted into a culture of male privilege and female suffering, gravitate to another culture and system of law. Correctional Service of Canada recently completed an assessment of a convicted killer that decided against Mohamed Al Ballouz of Brossard, Quebec being admitted to a women's prison.

 

This man, convicted of murdering his wife Synthia Bussieres and their two sons -- five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac in 2022, was sentenced to life in prison in December, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. While in custody, the man, also convicted of setting fire to the family condo, transitioned to a woman. With his new name of Levana, he asked that he be preferentially incarcerated at the Joliette Institution for Women, northeast of Montreal. Thankfully for the women at Joliette, the decision was that Al Ballouz remain in a men's prison. 

Synthia Bussières with her sons Éliam Al Ballouz, left, and Zac Al Ballouz. (Obituary)

 

No Sooner Warned Than Struck : Russian Cyber Attacks

"Canada's Cyber Centre ... is aware of foreign cyber threat activities, including by Russian-backed actors, to target Canadian critical infrastructure network operators, their operational and information technology."

"[Attacks could arrive in a range of forms from a] widespread ransomware attack [to a] single, carefully focused [attempt to significantly impact core infrastructure]."

Cyber Centre Agency, Communications Security Establishment

 

"The depth of the information provided by the U.S. and the urgency used underlines the seriousness of this situation. These government bulletins do not come without sufficient research and justification."

"While we can speculate what exactly drove this alert, the more important message is that the entire world should be watching the heightened tensions surrounding Russia's intentions toward Ukraine and, especially, the recent publicly acknowledged cyberattacks."

"A cuberattack on any of Canada's critical support systems could cause crippling disruption to the population and the economy. For this reason, protecting critical infrastructure and the operational technology behind it is increasingly regarded as a mater of national security."

"Canada and our allies have experienced a general increase in cyberthreat activity throughout the last year, including ransomware attacks, supply chain attacks, and the exploitation of discovered vulnerabilities in commonly used software."

"Russian-linked groups have been among the drivers of this activity."

"Should Russia-backed cyber threat activity launch against Canada, we can expect to see anything from a widespread ransomware attack to a single, carefully focused but impactful attack on our infrastructure."

"It may take some time to work out what is going on (or what happened) as Russia has a long history of distracting opponents from its real intentions."

David Masson, director, Darktrace cyber-A1 defence company 

"Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat actors have used sophisticated cyber capabilities to target a variety of U.S. and International critical infrastructure organizations, including those in the Defense Industrial Base as well as the Healthcare and Public Health, Energy, Telecommunications, and Government Facilities Sectors."

U.S. Bulletin

Intelligence experts in recent years have been warning about the growing frequency of cyber attacks by foreign states. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press/File

Russia uses all manner of cold-war, 21st Century battlefields delivering messages to those countries that provoke Moscow's ire of their displeasure, through their ability to negotiate around cyberspace and threaten the infrastructure and social order of countries opposed to Russia's moves on the international scene. In 2007 Estonia, a former Soviet Union satellite, assaulted Moscow's sensibilities by removing a memorial to the Soviet Red Army to a loss prominent position, and paid for its audacity through a devastating series of major cyberattacks that shut down banks, media outlets and government offices.

 

Russian speakers rose up on the streets in protest at the statue's move - and cyber attackers followed behind   Getty Images

 In more recent years, after the 2014 start of an ethnic-Russian Ukrainian separatist group in the Donbas and Russia's military incursion, arming and fighting alongside the separatists against Ukraine, culminating in Russia's claiming of the Crimea Peninsula as Russian territory, the standoff between Ukraine and the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine while leading to active hostilities and violence also saw Ukraine suffering cyberattacks threatening its electrical system power grid in 2015. 

 

And in mid-January Kyiv experienced cyberattacks on government offices, with an eerily sinister message: : "Be afraid and expect the worst." This, in the buildup to a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine, reclaiming what Vladimir Putin insists is a historical connection between the two countries as one. And the 'one' who controls Ukraine would be Russia. Embodying Mr. Putin's other cherished aspiration, to appeal to the better sense of its neighbours to return to the good old days of the USSR, within Russia's loving embrace.

A threatening message appeared on Ukrainian government websites on 14 January, 2022

Detailed warnings arrived in Canada from the United States and United Kingdom cybersecurity sections of the imminence of Russian actors imposing hostile, threatening and damaging cyberattacks within Canada. Both the U.S. and the U.K. warned that their own cybersecurity communities are in a "heightened state of awareness, proactively searching out risks to their networks in response to threats from Russia", looming increasingly in the very near future.

Two years earlier Canada's CSE warned that state-sponsored threat actors like Russia were "very likely" trying to develop tools to allow them to disrupt critical infrastructure "such as the supply of electricity", concluding that the attackers were not likely to want to disrupt critical infrastructure in Canada to cause "major damage or loss of life". But for the major caveat "in the absence of international hostilities". Well, those international hostilities have eventuated with Russia's massing of a 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border and deliberate additional provocations enlisting Belarus and Kazakhstan bordering Ukraine, in its assault plans.

Belarusian peacekeepers leave a Russian military plane at an airfield in Kazakhstan, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. As Kazakhstan struggles to cope with a violent uprising this week, it has turned for help to a Russian-led security bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.The Associated Press

"Critical services for Canadians through Global Affairs Canada (Department of Foreign Affairs) are currently functioning. Some access to internet and internet-based services are not currently available as part of the mitigation measures and work is underway to restore them."

"At this time, there is no indication that any other government departments have been impacted by this incident."

"The Government of Canada deals with ongoing and persistent cyber risks and threats every day. Cyber threats can result from system or application vulnerabilities, or from deliberate, persistent, targeted attacks by outside actors to gain access to information."

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

(RedPixel/stock.adobe.com)

So there it is. No sooner said than done. Cyberattacks against Canadian government departments are not new, they have been occurring with some regularity of recent times. And the suspects are usually China or Russia. This latest attack that occurred on the very day that Canada's cyberdefence agency warned of Russian-backed threats, was a significant attack, a cyber incident  causing disruption to a group of departmental systems. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which had warned of such an attack's likelihood is now investigating what it had predicted.

Civilian participants in a Kyiv Territorial Defence unit train in a forest on January 22, 2022, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Chinese Behemoth on a Global Aggression Binge

"China is threatening our citizens and undermining our rights and freedoms with its covert operations in Canada. Everything should be under consideration to defend Canada and Canadians -- including a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics."

"Canada is a winter sports powerhouse. No Winter Olympics could be a success without Canada's participation."

Michael Chong, Conservative Member of Parliament, Opposition foreign affairs critic

 

"The decision on whether or not to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic games lies with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, as they operate independently of the government."

Department of Canadian Heritage 

"There's no question that there's aspects of what the Chinese are doing that fits into the definition of genocide in the genocide convention [in Beijing's persecution of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province so I've asked the UN Human Rights Council to investigate]."

Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae

"I would like to ask this ambassador, if his logic is plausible in finding out who best fits the label of genocide, it seems that it is not the Uyghurs who are persecuted, but rather the people of Canada, am I right?"

"How did [Ambassador Rae] reach his conclusion without any evidence?"

Chinese Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian

China is not, on the record, very given to respecting human rights. Its occupation of Tibet and subsequent persecution of Tibetans, its incarceration of up to a million Uyghurs in massive 're-education' compounds to free them from the bonds of Islam and re-acquaint them with the merciful and opportunist merits of the Communist system represents a harmonious alternative to the dread 'splitism' challenging the Chinese Communist Party's authority. 

China's aggression toward its neighbours claiming ownership of disputed air, sea and land territories in the South China Sea, its installation of military bases on islands claimed by its neighbours and occupied by China, its border challenges to India in the Himalaya, all attest to Beijing's new assertiveness through intimidation, threat and military intervention. Beijing's Belt and Road enterprise from Africa to the Middle East  uses carrots instead of sticks, all geared unerringly toward power, influence and conquest.

 

 

When push comes to shove, Beijing has no equals. It has been shoving Australia around for pursuing an enquiry into the actions that China took at the turn of 2020 when the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID became a global threat of colossal proportions. China has launched a propaganda campaign of misinformation alleging that the virus emanated originally from Europe, then entered China, not that it escaped from a non-secure biological laboratory in Wuhan, China, to surface there as a dread disease that would go on to become a global pandemic.

China has abducted innocent Canadians characterizing them as a threat to the People's Republic of China, imprisoned them and intimates they could be released with the release from custody of Huawei's CFO taken into custody in Vancouver at the extradition request of U.S. authorities, where she resides in comfort in her two luxury Vancouver mansions, while Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig have spent two agonizing years exposed to subtle Chinese torture charged as "spying on national secrets".

Canada, a member of the "Five Eyes" intelligence coalition of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, is the only one among them which has failed to announce that Huawei Technologies will not take part in Canada's 5G upgrades, as the others have done. The coalition issued a joint statement on Hong Kong to the effect: "China’s action is a clear breach of its international obligations under the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. It breaches both China’s commitment that Hong Kong will enjoy a ‘high degree of autonomy’, and the right to freedom of speech."

Pro-democracy legislator Ted Hui Nov.18,2020.AP Photo/Vincent Yu

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman warned the Five Eyes countries to stay out of China's affairs saying: "They should be careful or their eyes will be plucked out."

"The Chinese never make trouble and are never afraid of anything," Zhao Lijian told journalists in Beijing on Thursday, saying it did not "matter if they had five or 10 eyes". BBC

Canada, along with other Western nations has been plagued with state-sponsored cyber threats that have become the "new normal", emanating from hackers in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. China has for decades engaged in commercial and military espionage. One of the telecommunications successes in Canada, Nortel, with its huge networks and advanced technologies was a giant in its field, one that employed Chinese technicians who took what they learned at Nortel to build Huawei while destroying Nortel.

It is past time for this Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to do a number of things: inform Beijing without equivocation that it will no longer tolerate that two Canadians are being held ransom. Three other Canadians have been given death sentences, on convictions of drug peddling, sentences that just happened to coincide with the Huawei affair. 

 

Huawei should be informed without further delay that they will not be involved in Canada's 5G upgrade. The federal government and the Canadian Sports Federation should agree that Canada is set to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.

 

Chinese police patrol outside the Olympic Stadium in Beijing on July 21, 2008. Canada seems perfectly prepared to send its athletes to a sporting competition in a country where two of its citizens are held in state custody. Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

And no longer should Canada tolerate China's outreach within Canada, not only its intolerable spying, but its intimidation of Chinese-Canadian citizens. The world is very much aware of Chinese bullying in its belief that its destiny is to become the world's sole powerhouse, that its time has come and it will no longer take the advice of Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s that China should bide its time; observe carefully, secure its position, cope with affairs calmly and bide its time.

The Beijing Specialty of Hostage Diplomacy

Michael Spavor, pictured in 2017  | AP

"When you have multiple countries' citizens detained, all of whom have one thing in common, which is that they have tense relations with China, it suggests a pattern. Certainly there is a pattern of China relying on hostage diplomacy."                                     "One obvious avenue is -- and this will be highly controversial -- that China relies heavily on food imports from around the world to feed its population. That includes Canadian corn and grain and so if there's a collective effort by countries such as Australia and Canada that supply a disproportionate amount of basic foodstuffs to China it would send a clear signal that if you're going to play like that, we have ways of causing pain."                                                                                                                          "If this is the way the Chinese do business, then maybe we need to do business with the Chinese on their terms."   Christian Leuprecht, political science professor, Royal Military College, Queen's University

Michael Spavor, a Canadian diplomat on leave, and working in China for a Canadian non-profit has spent 18 months in a Chinese prison in an arrest and a year later, charges of espionage for the purpose of harming China, widely recognized as retaliation for the detaining in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. This event also began the diplomatic and trade erosion between the two countries that has produced a stalemate. 

Ms. Weng, wanted on a U.S. extradition warrant will be turned over to U.S. authorities to stand trial on the charges brought against her by the U.S., which has Canada honouring its extradition treaty with its southern neighbour. And Mr. Spavor, along with another Canadian, entrepreneur Michael Kovrig, arrested on the same specious charges, will continue to languish in the Chinese prison system with the threat of a long prison sentence before them following a mock trial.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, in September 2016. | REUTERS

 Before becoming prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau was once asked which country he most admired. Canada was not his candidate, China was as he professed  his admiration for a 'basic dictatorship, capable of turning a country's authority around on a dime, as it were. Mr. Trudeau appeared besotted by China, and harboured an ambition to forge robust trade ties with the communist country, an ambition he had in common with Canadian big business all of whom wanted an opportunity to reach into the promise of doing business with the trading behemoth.

More latterly, an Australian news anchor working out of Beijing was placed under house arrest, linked to the escalation of tensions between Australia and China. She too may eventually be charged with 'espionage' on the basis of having written something unfavourable about China for her home audience of Australia. Detained since mid-August, Cheng Lei, born in China, now a citizen of Australia, is being "held under residential surveillance". 

Australia is guilty of having pushed for an enquiry over China's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak in the early days of COVID-19. Ever since that breach of confidence in Beijing's sterling behaviour on the world scene, the Chinese Communist Party leaders have expressed contempt for the Australian government, embarking on a trade war,  just as was done with Canada, when China embargoed canola products and meat claiming they had been infected and were substandard, refusing to accept them, as a trade pressure-point.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) released a new report finding that China has been more involved in the use of this typically coercive diplomacy, tracing incidents occurring across 28 countries. Included are the United Kingdom, Australia and other Asian countries severely displeasing Beijing. Predictably, in all such cases, Beijing views those nations that have dispeased it as having taken 'wrong action', recommending that they admit their guilt, apologize, reverse the wrong action, otherwise there is guaranteed deterioration in country-to-country relations.

According to the Australian report, offensive diplomatic incidents leading to hostage diplomacy arose in 2018, with "divide and conquer" tactics emanating from the Chinese Politboro. The rest of the world, it was suggested could take action, countering the situation through multilateral institutions acting in concert. There were 152 instances of coercive measures made use of by the Chinese regime, with 34 of those taking place in the first eight months of 2020. "Unless states can come up with a better strategy to resist coercive diplomacy, we can expect this trend to continue", noted Fergus Hanson, Emilia Currey and Tracy Beattie, the ASPI report authors.

Google Maps/Business Insider

India and China dispute the border in the Ladakh region, both claiming part of the area as their own.

An increasing number of countries are beginning to recognize and speak out on the Chinese government's behaviour. Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and India among them. In the U.K. the treatment of the Turkic minority Uighurs in Xinjiang province being placed in reeducation camps by the hundreds of thousands; the mistreatment of  Tibetan Buddhists and Kazahks; while Beijing's bullying in the East China Sea over a disputed island claimed by Japan, and violently claiming disputed rights over India's Himalayan borders all mark Beijing's growing aggression.

The Uncertainty of Spanish Reaction to Barcelona Revealed 

"Who knows what will happen if the Guardia Civil comes?"
"If they tell me I can't be in a public school to exercise my democratic rights, they will have to take me out of here. I won't resist, but they will have to carry me out."
Quim Roy, activist, Barcelona

Riot police shoot rubber bullets. People form a line in protest in an attempt to cast their ballots in Barcelona. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

"[The use of rubber bullets by Spanish police against crowds of unarmed voters was shocking.] We did expect a normal democratic process."
"We knew that a lot of police were here but still, you know, there should be a respect for the will of the people to vote regardless of what you think of the referendum."
Ksenia Svetlova, member Israeli parliament, part of a delegation of 33 invited by Catalan officials to observe the voting process

"[The violence, while] unfortunate [and] unpleasant [was] proportionate."
"If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law."
Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis

Police move back to their vans followed by members of the public after storming into polling station to confiscate ballot boxes and ballots in Sant Julia de Ramis, Spain, Sunday. - David Ramos,Getty Images

A deadline had been set; six in the morning on Sunday, police warning activists along with parents and their children in the Catalan schools they took to occupying to prevent the police from shutting them down from polling place activities three hours later. In Madrid there were protest marches against separation; balancing the thousands who marched in Barcelona to remain united with Spain. The Spanish parliament warned that the referendum should not, and would not take place, characterizing it as 'anti-democratic'; a rather surprising interpretation of democracy.

But the nation's constitutional court three weeks earlier had suspended the independence vote supporting the government's identifying it as illegal. Making it entirely expected that the police would be dispatched to stop the process to intervene by whatever means seen to be necessary to stop ballots being cast. They began by confiscating millions of ballots and posters. And the following, predictable course of action was indeed to haul people away from their intended vote.

Armed for business with truncheons and rubber bullets police from other regions were sent to put a stop to the voting, to confiscate ballots and in their zeal some were shot on video dragging people away from polling stations by their hair, others being pushed down stairways, being kicked and shoved to the ground. The physical violence was emphasized by peoples' frightened screams. One voter's amateur footage was of police attacking unarmed people and other locations revealed similar rough tactics, people being kicked, punched, thrown about, including the elderly with dogs, young girls and all manner of other people attempting to protect their heads from truncheon blows.

 An estimated eight hundred people were injured, some aeriously. They may have been peaceful protesters, unarmed civilians who felt it was their human right to cast ballots, but they came against well-armed and -instructed police who felt otherwise. Of the 2.26 million Catalans who managed to vote, 90 percent significantly voted "yes", to favour independence. Close to eight percent, a negligible number, rejected independence, while the other ballots were either voided or simply blank.

The region's 5.3 million registered voters made the most of their difficult opportunities to express themselves in the only way they could. The government of Spain penalized them with an amazing reaction, a violence that would make a tyranny proud of its capacity to quell rebellion. Of the ballots accounted for, there were others, confiscated by Spanish police during the violent raids planned to put a halt to the vote process.


The leaders of other nations in the European Union were undoubtedly dismayed and gap-mouthed at this undemocratic, violent display of raw anger and power to dissuade a significant proportion of a population that their opinion and their wishes in a purportedly democratic nation were of no value whatever; enforcing their loyalty and citizenship to a regime and a national process they no longer want any part of. There will be an appeal by the Catalan government to the European Union to focus on this abuse of human rights.

Calling Out Racism -- Or A New Inquisition?

"[Dr. Henry Parada, director of Ryerson University's School of Social Work committed a cardinal sin] at a time when Black folks were giving praise to a young Black woman professor at a critical and vulnerable time ..."
"[His actions] perpetrate anti-Black racism ... indicated ... you [Dr. Parada] do not value anti-Black women, Black educators or education, Black experience, Black life and ultimately Black students ..."
"You chose to violently disrupt the speaker and the space."
Black Liberation Collective Ryerson branch

Ryerson University   Henry Parada

 

Dr. Parada may have recalled some urgent task he had forgotten to look after at that juncture in the meeting on October 27, as he quietly left the gathering. But his departure was noted as was his absence at this event which was Black-oriented, requiring the utmost, rapt attention from all in attendance. Dr. Parada may have been less than rapt, turning his attention away from the awarding of praise to a black colleague, and he was accused of having committed "a violent act of anti-Blackness, misogyny and misogynoir" which translated means misogyny related to a black female.

Campuses across North America have been gorging themselves on a feast of raucous, outraged organized protests against anything that occurs at colleges and universities that is taken as a symptom of 'micro-aggression'. Included in that catch-phrase is anything that appears to belittle a 'special' unprivileged minority, as interpreted by that minority, including cultural appropriation, where at special events someone might be misguided enough to dress in a manner reflecting a culture other than their own. White people are of course particularly skilled at insulting minority groups and most of the ire is directed toward them.

The Black Liberation Collective that appears to have Ryerson University quaking in its scholarly boots sent an open letter to senior university and social work administrators, dated October 31; the letter was posted to Facebook the following day. Accusing Dr. Parada of failing "to contain your anti-Black rage", being responsible for "a public display of toxic masculinity", demanding imperiously that he "immediately step down" as director of the school of social work. He must also apologize in a very public arena "and publicly release how you will genuinely address anti--Black racism".

The professor, recognizing just how powerfully privileged was the rage against him, did step down as director of the university's School of Social Work. Who can blame him? The intention being that he would resume teaching in the guise of just another academic without pretensions to leadership in the field that he had so abysmally failed in. Undoubtedly, although this must be a great relief to him, it appears only to have further infuriated the collective black-feminist rage against the man; his swift accommodation of the initial demand meant he wasn't bleeding sufficiently to satisfy their bloodlust.

The tenor of this almost-inchoate venomous rage might seem to some onlookers like a demonstration of black anti-white racism, but of course that could not possibly be the case, could it? The letter was signed "In rage, solidarity and kindness" by "concerned students" whose names were not included on the letter, as well being signed by the social work student union, the Ryerson Feminist Collective and United Black Students at Ryerson. The kind rage expressed by all concerned certainly released a flood of vitriol and race-consciousness.

Facebook    Students at a Black Liberation Collective Ryerson protest during a School of Social Work meeting this week.

Then on November 7 another kind missive was posted on Facebook in response to a response to the first one by the university: "We hear your concerns about Anti-Black Racism in the school and want to assure you we take them seriously. We ask for your patience as we continue to work to respond to the people, communities and constituencies involved", read the first letter from the social work school. Cravenly mollifying, hoping against hope that the surrender to black racism disguised in an impenetrable cloak of justness would calm the situation and restore order and 'mutual respect', but it did nothing of the kind.

What it did was elicit yet another tirade on Facebook: "This disingenuous response to our open letter is just another display of the anti-Black racism perpetrated by the School of Social work and particular individuals who benefit from maintaining this system of Whiteness." Quite the zinger that, but it hasn't finished the matter by any means. Those curious about what led to this furious distance between black students and the university have been informed by the BLC: "We can appreciate wanting to know the specifics of this event", under questioning of the purpose and reason for the Facebook postings.

Earning, however, the logic-free elucidation that anyone curious about what had occurred to engender the verbal fusillades by the BLC against Algonquin were posing "problematic questioning" and as such were themselves aiding, abetting and adding "to the anti-Black racism we are confronting". Ask not what your black brothers and sisters do on your behalf oh ye underprivileged. So there, ask not what drastic malfeasance against the black community at the university so well earned its collective rage, for by so doing, it becomes evident that you are part of the white conspiracy against blacks.

"We indict the School of Social Work of perpetrating anti-Black racism through placing our Black educators in the most precarious forms of employment, through particular educators allowing Black students to experience anti-Black racism in the classroom." Cower and wilt thou guilty! Demanding to meet with a variety of deans as well as "other higher administration" prepared to make a commitment to "challenging anti-Black racism and anti-Native racism" in a way that the BLC could guide, approve and graciously deign to accept.

And not to be forgotten was the requirement that "an official apology from Henry Parada that names what he did and why he stepped down" be humbly rendered for their relishment.

Torquemada would beam with pride, extending sincere congratulations. But of course in doing so he might also be opening himself to charges of cultural exploitation and expropriation. Only his heart was black, not his skin colour.

The unaffected and bemused onlooker might surmise in his/her ignorance that Ryerson University welcomed this situation. A banner appears across its website that reads: "Anti-oppression/social transformation/social justice". And if that isn't enough, here is their values statement: "School of Social Work is a leader in critical education, research and practice with culturally and socially diverse students and communities in the advancement of anti-oppression/anti-racism, anti-Black racism, anti-colonialism/decolonization, Aboriginal reconciliation, feminism, anti-capitalism, queer and trans-liberation struggles, issues in disability and Madness, among other social justice struggles."

Gag? Some might consider this unreconstructed drivel, giving ammunition to the disaffected in society, simmering with resentment and hatred at the very reality that in the past, before civil society developed a deep conscience of regret and dismay at its former unfortunate attitudes of discrimination against minorities. Yes, people of colour among others were disgracefully felt to be inferior and treated to an inferior status within society. 

Ameliorating that situation by completely reversing the social contract to replace it with one of guaranteed equality and respect appears to have done little to appease these 'progressive', 'activist' groups. In which instance, one can be forgiven for regretting the current state of affairs, while deploring the rancid stupidity of those feeling entitled to their episodic raging accusations while they themselves practise the delights of racism-in-reverse, black-on-white.

As for Ryerson, once again, they appear to have invited and welcomed the situation that has resulted in the utter abnegation of their "core values" statement: "We acknowledge that our School is on the land of the Mississaugas of New Credit. We support the struggles of Indigenous populations, nationally and globally, for Indigenous sovereignty and their collective rights. We educate about the intersectionality and interlocking of oppressions and seek to address their causes."

"As a community of people connected to the School of Social Work we agree that we will address micro-aggression as it occurs and discuss how we might be implicated in acts of micro-aggression." Which leads naturally enough to the empowered communities thus named reacting in acts of macro- aggression.

Dual-Purpose Sabre-Rattling

"We believe that NATO buildup on Russia's doorstep, which is reminiscent of Cold War sabre-rattling, is a complete waste of money and resources, diverting them from the real existential threat of international terrorism."
"Given that terrorists make no distinction between Russians and Canadians, as well as reports claiming 151 nationals of Canada are on an ISIS 'kill list', common sense and pragmatism dictate the need to join efforts, as opposed to reincarnation of Cold War containment."
Russian embassy statement, Ottawa

General Sir Richard Shirreff, who served as Nato's deputy supreme allied commander in Europe until 2014, warned that an attack on Baltic states Lativa, Estonia and Lithuania was a possibility. Russian tanks are pictured in Moscow

It might be a more convincing argument, that Russia feels uncomfortable and put-upon by the too-close geographical presence in its near-abroad by NATO troops if it were not for several items that in and of themselves point to the fact that Russia's actions have brought about the current situation of NATO recognizing its obligation to protect its member-countries because of threats to the sovereign security of those nations through Kremlin-designed activities.

Spurning international condemnation, Russian President Vladimir Putin saw little amiss in annexing the Crimean Peninsula, effectively looting it from Ukraine to benefit Greater Russia; in so doing, he claimed, righting a historical error and restoring to Russia its heritage property. And no amount of censure, nor the imposition of sanctions convinced Moscow to reverse its claims, let alone to stop supporting and inciting ethnic Russian rebels in east Ukraine.

Russia's earlier action with two provinces in Georgia pretty well set the template. The concern in eastern Europe among former Soviet-era satellites is who might be next; Moldova too representing that precedent. As for reminding the world that the civilized portions of it, among which Russia includes itself, is battling a vicious Islamist killing machine and this is where the focus should be, with Russia allied with Western powers to defeat the Islamic State, that too would seem meaningful if Russian jets weren't strafing and bombing Syrian Sunni rebel groups instead of ISIL.

The civilized country that Russia has allied itself with in the Middle East is the sectarian-conflicted Syria of Bashar al-Assad whose penchant for imprisoning, torturing and killing children distinguishes him, including his slaughter of close to a half-million of his own citizens, as a barbarous criminal felon. Yet this is the civilized leader to whom Mr. Putin cleaves, agreeing to view the Sunni rebels in the civil war as 'terrorists' and targeting them as such.

NATO has formulated a protective presence of some message-powerful volume with the installation of super-battalions of one thousand military personnel each in eastern Europe with the U.S. Britain and Germany each leading one battalion, and NATO allies inviting Canada to take command of the fourth. The Government of Canada has not yet responded to the invitation, but as a NATO member it is difficult to imagine it would do so negatively.

This new force and its extraordinary size is considered essential to ensure that Russia thinks deeply before once again violating the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of any of the eastern European countries whose concern for their sovereign state and future has been intensified by Vladimir Putin's drive toward a semi-restoration of Russia's glory within the period of the USSR dominating eastern European nations.

The tense stand-off between Russia, Europe and NATO represents a fall-out of the impetuosity and imperialistic attitude of Vladimir Putin who acts without regard to the consequences in the obvious attitude that he is entitled to do precisely as he wishes and that any reaction to his behaviour in Russia's near-abroad is Moscow's business, not that of NATO.

NATO thinks otherwise, obviously, hence the largest military exercise in Poland the Baltics since the Cold War taking place recently, irritating Mr. Putin no end. Yet he fails to see the connection between his own impulsive, worrying directions to his military when his submarines, military jets and military personnel take injudicious actions against their Western counterparts in episodes of malicious bullying.

Russia/NATO -- Restive Times

"[The United States] is not thinking about doing two [combat battalion leaderships in eastern Europe]."
"We're planning to do one and get our allies to step up [for the others]."
Douglas E. Lute, American ambassador to NATO

"[NATO is undertaking the deployment of] the biggest reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the Cold War."
"I know the mood in Washington and I understand it: The Americans want to see the Europeans doing more, contributing more."
"[NATO must be prepared to deploy conventional means but NATO] remains a nuclear alliance [with deterrence meant to be] seamless [ranging from response to cyberattacks through to conventional weapons and if the situation demands, nuclear weapons." 
"...As long as nuclear weapons exist in the world, we have to remain a nuclear alliance."
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general

Impossible, and as fear-inducing as it is, nuclear weapons being brought into engagement as a 'deterrence' is being discussed by two sides to a stand-off. Where Moscow has been enhancing its military capabilities by the introduction of new advanced weapons systems and the refurbishing of its military might, its president has also ruminated on the issue of nuclear power as a deterrent. Tactical nuclear weapons arming Russian submarines can only be seen as a message of intent, of last resort, of what could happen if it is pushed too far.

Or should the Kremlin feel endangered at the prospect of NATO, for example wanting to teach an unforgettable lesson of explosive one-upsmanship. That might seem the most far-fetched potential to any mind in the West but Russia under Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly volatile and paranoid. Its near-abroad has been colonized by the interfering West despite a gentleman's agreement that NATO would give eastern Europe a wider berth, which became rather complicated when Russia began agitating its neighbours.

A Russian intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry four miniaturized nuclear warheads was paraded through Red Square in Moscow last May. Credit Kirill Kudryavsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Russian aggression in Moldova, in Georgia and in Ukraine in expanding Greater Russia to resemble a wan reflection of the glory days of the Soviet Union has made its Baltic neighbours increasingly concerned over further incursions of a resurgent Russia. And NATO, as it has been mandated to do, has responded in defense of its members. Western Europe is less interested in building its defences and its arsenals, however. Somewhat leaving the United States in its traditional dilemma as chief assurance of security.

It is a role that has palled on the United States under the Obama administration, and in fact, is reflected increasingly in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Russia's swaggering aggression in Ukraine and its military deployment in Syria coming to the aid of Bashar al-Assad have gained it glory at home and suspicion elsewhere. Leading NATO to respond to its concerned members in Europe who want the protection but not to have to make the investment themselves.

Unusual times call for extraordinary measures, and NATO is looking at strengthening its collective defence substantially, with an ambitious goal of establishing four combat battalions of up to a thousand soldiers in each of the countries bordering Russia; a plan certain to extract maximum outrage from the Kremlin. So far three of those leadership battalions have been agreed to, from the United States, Germany and Britain. Canada has been invited to provide the fourth, but has not yet responded.

Both Romania and Poland have become the sites for ballistic missile defense systems. NATO is reassuring its nervous members in the east of Europe that the alliance they depend upon for their security will deliver its promise of collective defense. Naval exercises in the Black Sea and overflights by reconnaissance aircraft are a part of that assurance of readiness to respond. If the concern of potential aggression and response were restrained to conventional techniques the tension is bearable.

But some NATO nations believe that Russia has placed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. As though to exploit the fear it might be furious enough to use them, should its territorial aggression be met with a sizeable force determined to halt any such advance in internationally illegal territoriality.

Nuclear-powered submarines at a base in Russia’s Murmansk region. Moscow has increased submarine patrols in the past year. Credit Lev Fedoseyev/TASS, via Getty Images

"With regard to strikes from a submarine. We certainly need to analyse everything that is happening on the battlefield, how the weapons work. Both the [Kalibr] missiles and the Kh-101 rockets are generally showing very good results. We now see that these are new, modern and highly effective high-precision weapons that can be equipped either with conventional or special nuclear warheads."
Vladimir V. Putin

Islamism is the Problem -- Where is the Solution?

The world has a problem. One of monumental proportions. Of course there are always problems, threatening one part of the world or another. Or, in the instance of a problem as universal as Climate Change, a problem whose dimensions are difficult to grasp, let alone for nations to agree on whether and how, when and why each will pledge to restrain their use of energy that carbonizes our atmosphere interfering with nature and causing implacably dangerous weather systems to arise.

And, as it happens, there is a link to greenhouse gas emissions and the vulnerability of our environment to forces both natural, repetitive and cyclical and the way that humans manipulate our environment, corrupting it and endangering all of life. For it seems that the more we advanced our technologies to enable us to extract natural resources the more we compromised our habitat.

There are countries whose vast natural store of fossil fuels enriched them beyond imagination, countries which were entirely devoid of any economic mechanism and recognized resources as well as initiatives to further themselves economically to advance into the future. This is where countries of the Middle East like the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia in particular derived their financing and their power; from the exploitation of their vast stores of oil and natural gas.


And it is Saudi Arabia upon which the focus should be held. For this is a puritan country of elites in the Arab/Muslim world, a country that sees itself as the exemplar-devotion of divine faith as the acknowledged protectors and stewards of the two most sacred sites in the world's second-most-followed religion, Islam. Mecca and Medina, which the Prophet Mohammad conquered in the 7th Century, through bloodshed and appropriation is what motivates the House of Saud.



Their vast stores of oil have lent them authority and power and fabulous wealth. They have used all three to monumentalize themselves as the custodians of the faith. The country is zealous with an epic strain of religious bigotry, celebrating and spreading a 'pure' form of Islam that dates from its founding, Wahhabism. Non-Muslims are not permitted entry to those sacred cities, and nor is any religion other than Islam officially permitted to be worshipped in Saudi Arabia.

It is a country, like other Islamic countries that is Islamist in its form and function and purpose, and it looks to the Koran and Sharia law to address due punishment for crimes against Islam. Apostasy is a crime deserving death. But then, in Sharia law many 'crimes' against Islam and against the state are seen to be deserving of death. And the most common death sentence carried out in Saudi Arabia is by beheading, grotesque and grisly, a cultural/religious practise that has gained huge notoriety for a Wahhabist offshoot, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but preferentially ignored for Saudi Arabia.

With its vast wealth, the rulers of the country set about ensuring that their Islamist brand of Islam would prevail. When the Muslim Brotherhood was rejected in Egypt where it was born over 80 years ago, it found an appreciative home in Saudi Arabia. Salafist Islam is a stern, medieval, unrelenting form of Islam. Sunni Muslims are in the majority of roughly 80% in the community of Islam, the ummah, and Shiite Islam is the minority. The standard-bearer for Shia Islam which reveres descent from Mohammad is Iran, whose own Islamist credentials rival Saudi Arabia's.



The West views Wahhabist and Salafist Islam as 'radical', but it is Islam itself that practices an excess of manipulation of humanity, whose values are most often directly opposed to human rights in favour of total submission to the will of Allah. And the will of Allah is, needless to say, the human-imagined will of an all-powerful spirit whose expectations are that human beings live for the sole and singular pleasure of worshipping the divine.

All gods are jealous gods competing for human devotion and all inform their faithful of their obligation to convince others that theirs is the only way to salvation. Wahhabist Saudi Arabia does this by funding madrassas throughout the world; schools of religious teaching whose mandate is to transform people into Islamist fundamentalists. Of course, social tradition and culture has its part to play, as well; the madrassas formalize all of that, emphasizing jihad as the tool by which non-believers can be convinced they should believe in Islam.



Out of Wahhabism has come the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and Islamic State. And these are the nemesis of liberal democracies whom they decry as decadent insults to the sacredness of Islam. The pervasive nature of Western culture, Western values and Western goods is seen as inimical to Islam, weapons that the west uses in its war of ideas and possessions over the pure and selfless self-vision of Islam; a clash that is interpreted as an existential war.

Should the West succeed, they will diminish Islam. Should Islam succeed, it will destroy the West. Fanatical Islamism is the culture common to Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Arab/Muslim states, most of whom view the values and culture of the West as degraded and vulgar and a threat to Islam. To decry the violence that oozes out of Islam is to be labelled Islamophobic, a handy shaming tool for sensitive Western consciences.



And so, the West, out of a sense of colonialist guilt and sheer politeness, side-steps the questions that should be asked of Islam; that if it is as it insists, a religion of peace, how can it be that it is the foremost instigator of, and fount of institutionalized violence, human-rights abuses, slander, corruption and oppression, not only targeting its own, but impressively in its sheer savagery, non-Muslim democracies in regular paroxysms of raging psychopathy?