[JohnnyB]

Personally, I don't have any issue with Canada choosing not to participate in the Olympics, though I do think it would suck for the athletes and that athletes who would like to participate should still be able to do so under the IOC flag or something instead of the Canadian flag. Sovereign countries should make their own decisions according to their values and priorities. Ideally, I think athletes should be able to do the same too if they're willing to go without support from their home country.

There are some pretty crazy posts on CP recently regarding China though. Some quite hateful. Others quite ignorant. A few are both. When I read things like this, it makes me concerned that people have such limited understandings and perspectives:

China is an awful, horror show of a country

####ty countries like China

This is essentially like a Jihadist group

They are just scum.

Meng should be on a one way plane to Guantanamo

Lets show some true courage, go in to the belly of the beast and mock these criminals during their own event.

A real leader would play hardball, cut off diplomatic relations and seize everything in our nation owned by China.

Hey, maybe we would get lucky and they would declare war on us and NATO would be forced to crush them.

Xi is starting to get reckless, and there is a year to go, any sort of mass casualty or major attack on infrastructure would make it a sure thing.

If our guys are still rotting in Chinese prisons and we send a team it will represent one of the lowest points in the history of this country and no I’m not exaggerating.

I suspect some of the people quoted here only get exposure to the worst sides of China through the media they consume and that it is framed from a perspective that amplifies sentiments of fear and distrust. I'm not defending or dismissing genocide, but a country shouldn't just be defined only by the worst things it does.

Again, I think it's totally okay and appropriate for Canada not to go to the Olympics as a form of moral protest in alignment with Canadian values, but posts that express a desire to see Meng sent to Guantanamo or for Nato to crush China in a war are in themselves also pretty horrific betrayals of supposed Canadian moral values. If Canada does choose to attend these Olympics, it will also be far, far from one of the lowest points in Canadian history.