{"id":90718,"date":"2020-10-16T16:04:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T13:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/beijings-man-in-ottawa-ratchets-up-his-rhetoric\/"},"modified":"2020-10-16T16:04:07","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T13:04:07","slug":"beijings-man-in-ottawa-ratchets-up-his-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/beijings-man-in-ottawa-ratchets-up-his-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"#Beijing’s man in Ottawa ratchets up his rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Beijing’s man in Ottawa ratchets up his rhetoric<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Politics Insider for Oct. 16: Cong Peiwu warns Canada against offering asylum to Hong Kong activists, Mi’kmaw fishers plead for help from the feds and sea otters are back with a vengeance\n <\/div>\n
\n Welcome to a sneak peek of the\u00a0<\/em>Maclean\u2019s\u00a0Politics Insider\u00a0news<\/a>letter.\u00a0Sign up to get it delivered\u00a0straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say China has taken exception<\/a> to Canadian efforts to grant asylum to political dissidents from Hong Kong<\/strong>. Beijing\u2019s representative in Ottawa, Cong Peiwu<\/strong>, told a press conference that two recent refugees from the Chinese city were \u201cviolent criminals<\/strong>,\u201d and constitutes\u00a0interference in China\u2019s domestic affairs.\u201d Cong app<\/a>eared to at least imply a threat. \u201cIf the Canadian side \u2026 really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong,\u201d he said, \u201cyou should support those efforts to fight violent crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Cong threatening repercussions<\/strong>? The\u00a0Globe<\/em> reported<\/a> the ambassador as saying\u00a0any perceived threat was the questioner\u2019s \u201cinterpretation.\u201d Cong also repeated longstanding\u2014and, frankly, unbelievable\u2014denials that Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor\u2019s detention was connected to Canada\u2019s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, and he threatened a \u201cstrong reaction\u201d if the House of Commons formally condemns China\u2019s treatment of its Muslim Uyghur<\/strong> minority. (If anyone needs reminding: China has locked up hundreds of thousands of Chinese Muslims in what it describes as re-education camps but which the rest of the world considers a shocking, widespread abuse of human rights.)\u00a0 Meanwhile, the\u00a0Globe<\/em> also investigated<\/a> the influence of the Chinese-backed Confucius Institute on the curriculum of a school board in B.C.\u2019s lower mainland.<\/p>\n

An \u2018assault\u2019 on the Mi\u2019kmaw:<\/strong> That\u2019s how Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller<\/strong> described recent violent acts<\/a>\u00a0perpetrated against Indigenous fishers in Nova Scotia (read more about the Mi\u2019kmaw struggle). Miller called on the Mounties, who\u2019ve been criticized for making no arrests in connection with a damaged facility and burnt-out van that belonged to Mi\u2019kmaw fishers, to keep the peace. Miller set the stakes: \u201cIf we don\u2019t get this right,\u201d he said, \u201cpeople will die.\u201d\u00a0Mike Sack, the chief of the Sipekne\u2019katik First Nation<\/strong>, called on Ottawa<\/a> to do more. \u201cThey\u2019re sitting in their offices, safe as can be, saying, \u2018We need safety out there.\u2019 Then send enforcement down,\u201d Sack told a press conference.<\/p>\n

The feds have launched a\u00a0national design competition<\/strong><\/a> for an\u00a0LGTBQ+ monument<\/strong> in the nation\u2019s capital that will eventually sit near the shore of the Ottawa River behind the Library and Archives Canada building. The total budget for the monument\u2019s design and construction is set at \u201cno less than\u00a0$4,825,000<\/strong>.\u201d One of the jury members is\u00a0Michelle Douglas<\/strong>, an\u00a0LGBT purge survivor who has championed the monument\u2014and more recently made headlines for clashing with the Kielburgers.<\/p>\n

Leslyn Lewis<\/strong> will officially take her talents to southwestern Ontario<\/a>, where she\u2019ll carry the Tory banner in the next election and attempt to prove her Haldimand-Norfolksiness to the locals. Lewis is from the GTA<\/strong>, but a majority of Haldimand-Norfolk Tories supported her on the second ballot before she was eliminated from the party leadership race.<\/p>\n

American evangelicals still see Trump as their anointed one:<\/strong>\u00a0As the race for the White House builds to its crescendo, Adnan R. Khan<\/strong>\u00a0is touring rural America in search of answers to so many questions raised during a chaotic campaign. He stopped in Moscow, Idaho, to explore the unbridled enthusiasm among evangelicals for the incumbent.<\/p>\n

The fervour for Trump\u2014especially in rural Montana, Wyoming and Idaho\u2014is of the cultish variety<\/strong> seen at Trump rallies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Many progressives like me, understandably, dismiss it. But as W.I. Thomas, the late 19th- and early 20th-century American sociologist, once said, \u201csomething is real if it is real in its consequences.\u201d And the consequences of Donald Trump currying favour with the religious right\u2014from his attacks on secular institutions to his nomination of a judge they expect to curtail abortion rights<\/strong>\u2014are very real.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This morning, Foreign Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne<\/strong> will tell reporters about his European swing. Champagne stopped in\u00a0Greece, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania to talk with allies about how to deal with a fraudulent presidential election<\/a> in Belarus<\/strong>, armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh<\/strong> region and flaring tensions<\/a> between Turkey and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean Sea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mea culpa:<\/strong> Yesterday\u2019s newsletter told you that former senator Don Meredith<\/strong> resigned earlier this year. In fact, he resigned in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now for something completely different:<\/strong>\u00a0Sea otters are back with a worrying vengeance<\/strong> in B.C., writes Hamdi Issawi. \u201cOnce within a whisker of extinction, the adorable creatures are making a major resurgence,\u201d he writes. \u201cBut not all residents view their comeback in a favourable light.\u201d
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