Canadian Federal Politics Thread v5

[peter12]

So, it's bad either way. If the PMO/PCO was briefed and DIDN'T inform the PM, that is absolute incompetence. If the PM was briefed and actively covered it up, well...

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Now i am just pissed off that the PUBLICLY-FUNDED screens at the Ctrain Station wasn’t showing this big breaking news. How can anybody think about arrival times?! Defund Train Stations!

I think people have a right to be wary of another nation meddling in elections, and it should be explored.

I'm no real big fan of CBC either, personally, but not with a real axe to grind, I actually believe that there is an important role for a National Broadcast Corporation to fill but I find the CBC does a horrendously and expensively poor job of filling that role.

I actually watch and enjoy a lot of Public programming, I find that the BBC has a lot of excellent offerings, I enjoy ABC programming quite a bit especially in regards to investigative journalism and I think PBS documentaries are some of the best around.

I find the CBC to be remarkably third-rate. Of the 'BCs' the CBC is just the worst.

And the CBC are slanted, and thats okay to a point, almost every news outlet is, usually their slant or perspective is pretty obvious and thats fine, that bias can be acknowledged and either embraced or disregarded as one sees fit.

Clearly any news outlet cant, nor should, ignore this story nor paint it as a 'nothingburger' but sadly, its just another in a long, looong line of Liberal Party scandalous crap that we've actually become so accustomed to that it doesnt even faze us anymore.

The CBC could run a story about Trudeau running an 'Orphan Meat' grinding operation in the basement of 24 Sussex and nobody would even bat an eye.

"Oh that Justin! Always into something! The Liberals...but what can ya do? The other guy is a boogeyman!"

Disclaimer: *Poilievre might actually be the boogeyman, so there is that.*

The Orphans both operate the butchering apparatus and are the meat being ground, by the way, in case you're wondering.

But if we've learned anything over the past few years it should be that people will grasp onto anything, regardless of how insane, and some will believe it. Genuinely. At least if the CBC reported it there is a good chance that the real crazies wouldnt believe it.

At the end of the day though, we have a scenario here where a Sovereign, and sometimes hostile, Foreign Nation is attempting to influence Canadian Elections and the extent to which...would probably be at least handy, if not outright critical, to know.

I sincerely doubt it changes much.

I personally dont believe that a Foreign Nation could realistically alter a Domestic election in any really meaningful way and frankly, I'd be even more surprised if that influence was so important to them that they wouldnt be handing out cash to every leading Political Party. You know, to cover their bases.

That being said, the CBC isnt covering anything up. They are far too incompetent for that. I personally wish they were, if the CBC tried to cover this up I'd at least know by that very fact that theres really nothing there to worry about.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by peter12

So, it's bad either way. If the PMO/PCO was briefed and DIDN'T inform the PM, that is absolute incompetence. If the PM was briefed and actively covered it up, well...

Isn't he just trying to skate through with semantics and technicalities? He said this:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday that he hasn't been briefed by security agencies on any federal election candidates receiving funding from China amid reports of Chinese interference in Canadian elections.

https://globalnews.ca/video/9293131/...ing-from-china

Which specifically refers only to campaign funding coming from China. So it's totally possible he was actually never briefed on that specific thing (I don't think there have been specific allegations of that happening) and he worded it specifically like that so he could technically be telling the truth while giving the impression of a broader denial.

[CaptainCrunch]

After watching some of the committee meeting which just featured the Liberals filibustering (Greg Fergus) , one of them saying that only public servants should see classified documents and not elected officials.

NDP'er Peter Julian trying to make it about PP and the Convoy, wanting to call PP campaign chair to grill her about political interference in the Convoy and rambling on about Trump and Russian involvement etc.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Azure

If he was actually briefed there would almost certainly have been minutes kept of the briefing.

Since she answered the question that the PM was briefed and and was pretty clear on it, and promised the committee that she would deliver the dates.

I would assume that the Liberals will not allow the notes of the briefings to be delivered, or they'll be heavily redacted.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Locke

I think people have a right to be wary of another nation meddling in elections, and it should be explored.

I'm no real big fan of CBC either, personally, but not with a real axe to grind, I actually believe that there is an important role for a National Broadcast Corporation to fill but I find the CBC does a horrendously and expensively poor job of filling that role.

I actually watch and enjoy a lot of Public programming, I find that the BBC has a lot of excellent offerings, I enjoy ABC programming quite a bit especially in regards to investigative journalism and I think PBS documentaries are some of the best around.

I find the CBC to be remarkably third-rate. Of the 'BCs' the CBC is just the worst.

And the CBC are slanted, and thats okay to a point, almost every news outlet is, usually their slant or perspective is pretty obvious and thats fine, that bias can be acknowledged and either embraced or disregarded as one sees fit.

Clearly any news outlet cant, nor should, ignore this story nor paint it as a 'nothingburger' but sadly, its just another in a long, looong line of Liberal Party scandalous crap that we've actually become so accustomed to that it doesnt even faze us anymore.

The CBC could run a story about Trudeau running an 'Orphan Meat' grinding operation in the basement of 24 Sussex and nobody would even bat an eye.

"Oh that Justin! Always into something! The Liberals...but what can ya do? The other guy is a boogeyman!"

Disclaimer: *Poilievre might actually be the boogeyman, so there is that.*

The Orphans both operate the butchering apparatus and are the meat being ground, by the way, in case you're wondering.

But if we've learned anything over the past few years it should be that people will grasp onto anything, regardless of how insane, and some will believe it. Genuinely. At least if the CBC reported it there is a good chance that the real crazies wouldnt believe it.

At the end of the day though, we have a scenario here where a Sovereign, and sometimes hostile, Foreign Nation is attempting to influence Canadian Elections and the extent to which...would probably be at least handy, if not outright critical, to know.

I sincerely doubt it changes much.

I personally dont believe that a Foreign Nation could realistically alter a Domestic election in any really meaningful way and frankly, I'd be even more surprised if that influence was so important to them that they wouldnt be handing out cash to every leading Political Party. You know, to cover their bases.

That being said, the CBC isnt covering anything up. They are far too incompetent for that. I personally wish they were, if the CBC tried to cover this up I'd at least know by that very fact that theres really nothing there to worry about.

Not to belabor it, but honestly I rarely go to the CBC Canada site to get political news, but I enjoy the other content like Market Place and the consumer rights type content they post, and everything on the local site is good for staying up to date on stuff going on in Calgary.

My feelings on this particular matter though are if China paid for the Liberals, it isn't getting it's moneys worth. I suspect if China had any undue influence here, the whole Huawei fiasco and the 2 Michaels would have been handled much differently.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1631115527060946944

https://twitter.com/user/status/1631082791650689025

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

As for this story - I don't see any indication that this government has been pro-China. We arrested that Huawei exec, we ban Chinese companies from 5G equipment. We've gone after them about Uyghur genocide, and Hong Kong.

So while obviously you don't want China influencing or pushing candidates into parliament and there should be hearings to find out why and how this happened - I don't see any sign that the government has been soft on China so I'm just following the news as it comes out and not particularly excited about it.

Thanks for bringing up these points.

Liberals as a party and Trudeau does not recognize it as genocide and abstained on the historic vote on the question of genocide in 2021 (a vote motioned by the Conservatives). Han Dong missed the vote despite being there before and after for other votes in parliament.

https://apnews.com/article/race-and-...1fd56eb4ac325d

https://globalnews.ca/video/7643720/...ighur-minority

As for Hong Kong, several very prominent party heads including Michael Chan spoke at pro-Beijing anti-Hong Kong protest rally. Michael Chan was on of Han Dong's main backers for nomination just a month later.

https://globalnews.ca/video/6056003/...eijing-rally-2

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...g-protests-on/

As for Huawei? Again Trudeau caved under significant domestic and foreign pressure and it took 3 years to act and was the last Five Eyes country to do so.

Parliament also passed a motion requiring the government to commit to an action plan which passed 178 vote to 146. 145 of those no votes were Liberal (only 5 voted yes)

https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/votes/43/2/23

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chi...ment-1.5807407

Canada's was so soft on China / Huawei that Five Eyes started making sub deals excluding Canada from talks.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...s-already-the/

If anything, Liberal's poor track record on China on these topics shows why we should even be more concerned about foreign interference influencing the decisions taken by our government.

[Firebot]

As we needed yet another side note in this charade, Pierre Elliott Trudeau foundation decides to pull a Morneau

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...tion-to-china/

“The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has learned in recent days through the media that there was a potential connection between the Chinese government and a 2016 pledge of $200,000 to be received by the Foundation,” President and CEO Pascale Fournier said in a statement on its website.

“We cannot keep any donation that may have been sponsored by a foreign government and would not knowingly do so,” Ms. Fournier said. “In light of these recent allegations, the foundation has refunded to the donor all amounts received with respect to the donation pledge.”

The thing is...as a charity, they don't need to to this? And there's nothing inherently wrong with the foundation taking foreign donations considering it is a non-political entity. So why the heck are they do it? And they claim to have found out through the media in recent days who gave them donations?

Trudeau’s Liberals swept to power in October, 2015 with a majority government. Seven months later, Mr. Zhang attended a Liberal Party fundraiser at the Toronto home of Chinese Business Chamber of Canada chair Benson Wong, where Mr. Trudeau was the guest of honour.

Just weeks after the May fundraiser, the Trudeau Foundation and the University of Montreal announced that Mr. Zhang and another wealthy Chinese businessman, Niu Gensheng, would donate $1-million “to honour the memory and leadership” of Pierre Trudeau, who as prime minister opened diplomatic relations with China in 1970.

Of the $1-million, $200,000 was pledged to the Trudeau Foundation, which provides scholarships, academic fellowships and leadership programs. The two men pledged $750,000 to the University of Montreal’s faculty of law, to fund scholarships, which include grants that help Quebec students visit China. Another $50,000 was supposed to go for a statue of the elder Mr. Trudeau that was never built.

Trudeau being Trudeau, Liberals are more concerned with the whistleblowing actually happening, versus why the whistleblowing happened.

Ms. Thomas, however, expressed concerns that whistleblowers leaked highly classified CSIS documents, viewed by The Globe, about Chinese election-interference tactics. Mr. Trudeau has said that he wants CSIS to find the leakers, who risk prosecution under the Security of Information Act.

“I am not going to comment on information that was inappropriately obtained,” Ms. Thomas said. “The unlawful sharing of information and inappropriate sharing of information, I believe jeopardizes national security.”

Oh look what I found myself while searching! From 2016

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle32971362/

And there were many articles around that time on dubious donations coming from China at party fundraisers.

https://nationalpost.com/news/politi...analysis-shows


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle32996950/

Did Trudeau and the leadership at the foundation all simultaneously fall on their heads and had amnesia?

[Doctorfever]

https://www.cisc-icca.ca/the-liberal...-of-canadians/

You really have to wonder when you see articles like this from 2019.

Not a smoking gun by any means, but with all the information coming to light it’s not hard to connect the dots.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

https://www.cisc-icca.ca/the-liberal...-of-canadians/

You really have to wonder when you see articles like this from 2019.

Not a smoking gun by any means, but with all the information coming to light it’s not hard to connect the dots.

On the other hand fabricating LNG Canadas modules in Alberta would have likely killed the economics of the project and BC does not have the capacity.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by GGG

On the other hand fabricating LNG Canadas modules in Alberta would have likely killed the economics of the project and BC does not have the capacity.

Right. But modular could have been produced in many parts of Canada. We had the resources and the manpower. Actually, we could have used the bump in our economy at that time.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

Right. But modular could have been produced in many parts of Canada. We had the resources and the manpower. Actually, we could have used the bump in our economy at that time.

Provided the project went ahead with a significant increase in cost and one of the main investors - China, was okay with not getting the construction benefit from their investment.

[Yoho]

Round and round we go this committee will acomplish nothing, need a full public inquiry.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1631330380744650753

[CaptainCrunch]

From a rare moment of unintentional comedy. Mark Gerrettson manages to not only kick himself in the balls, but then turns around and boots them into his own net with this spicy meatball.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1631399296598781952

He couldn't even get the date right as that donation wasn't in 2015 but in 2016.

[CaptainCrunch]

Oh and there was a vote for a public inquiry, but again non binding. But the NDP wanted it to cover all interference so I expect we'll get more of Peter Jullians Russian trucker theories.

If the Libs allow it to happen.

[chemgear]

This is pretty wild, from rubecube in the crackhead thread. Federal government sees no business case for LNG, maybe we are looking to get into the Cocaine export business after we setup a domestic supply chain?

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...lVlLdg4XLHMlYI

B.C. Premier David Eby said he’s astonished that the federal Health Department gave the green light to a Langley cannabis company to produce, sell, and distribute cocaine.

When asked by a reporter about the approval, Eby slammed Health Canada for not consulting B.C. before granting the company approval to produce cocaine.

“If Health Canada did in fact do this, they did it, not only without engaging with the province, but without notice to us,”

Michael Forbes, CEO of Adastra, said in a statement the company “will evaluate how the commercialization of (cocaine) fits in with our business model at Adastra in an effort to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine.”

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by chemgear

This is pretty wild, from rubecube in the crackhead thread:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...lVlLdg4XLHMlYI

B.C. Premier David Eby said he’s astonished that the federal Health Department gave the green light to a Langley cannabis company to produce, sell, and distribute cocaine.

When asked by a reporter about the approval, Eby slammed Health Canada for not consulting B.C. before granting the company approval to produce cocaine.

“If Health Canada did in fact do this, they did it, not only without engaging with the province, but without notice to us,”

Michael Forbes, CEO of Adastra, said in a statement the company “will evaluate how the commercialization of (cocaine) fits in with our business model at Adastra in an effort to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine.”

I'll just go on record and say I think that overall this is the way to go if we're going to get to true safe supply, but Health Canada should have definitely consulted the province ahead of time.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I'll just go on record and say I think that overall this is the way to go if we're going to get to true safe supply, but Health Canada should have definitely consulted the province ahead of time.

What would the consultation with the province be for?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Wormius

What would the consultation with the province be for?

Largely so they don't get caught with their pants down like this. It's more of a professional courtesy thing that you'd like to see the feds extend.