Editor’s note: This article on China’s growing influence in Canada is important because this development will have deep consequences for the family.

The family is the foundation of all societies. It is indispensable for raising children to become strong, responsible adults willing to assume a role in preserving democracy, values, and traditions.

In order for the family to flourish, it is necessary that its members live in a country that provides them with national security, by protecting them from terrorism and foreign control, and also by providing economic security.

It appears that Prime Minister Trudeau is undermining these two critical requirements by pushing forward a closer relationship with communist China.

Trudeau Admires China

Trudeau has made no secret of his admiration for China. In November 2013, he told a Toronto fundraising crowd that the nation he most admired was China. He said, “There is a level of admiration I certainly have for China. Their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime.” At the time of the death of Cuba’s communist leader, Fidel Castro, Trudeau described him as a “great leader”. Justin Trudeau is following in the footsteps of his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was a great admirer of communist China’s Mao Tse-Tung, Fidel Castro, and Michael Manley, former Marxist prime minister of Jamaica. Justin Trudeau continues to live under his father’s shadow in this regard.

Justin Trudeau mistakenly believes that if Canada is open to China, it will react positively to him personally and to this country. He is grievously mistaken. China has no friends. It wants to dominate the world economically, militarily, and politically. Wherever the Chinese boot has landed, it has ruthlessly extinguished democracy, such as in Tibet, Manchuria, and recently, Hong Kong. Within its own borders, China has murdered and imprisoned Christian minorities, the faith group Falun Gong, and the minority Muslim group, the Uyghurs. The Chinese government has pushed these religious minorities into forced labour, imprisonment and many to their death. China then ghoulishly uses the body parts of prisoners for organ transplants. The basic, democratic rights of freedom of opinion, speech, religion, and the right to a fair trial don’t exist in China. The tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989 are a testament to this.

Exploitation of Canada

China knows that Canada is the weakest link in the Western world. It has a submissive prime minister, limited military strength, and a population of a mere 37 million people to defend its natural resources from approximately 1.39 billion Chinese. Canada also has western education, scientific intelligence, and technology, which China wants and for which it is prepared to pay out billions, even trillions of dollars to obtain. China has a pervasive interest in influencing Canada’s affairs for its own advantage. To achieve its goal in Canada, China has infiltrated Canadian universities, corporations, and government agencies. This is significant because China passed a law in June 2017 called the National Intelligence Act, which requires all Chinese citizens and companies to be legally obliged to turn over any information or data to the communist regime upon request. China has successfully implemented this law to gain influence and power in Canada.

We know from the presence of China in other countries that its increased power and control will lead to Canadians having to conform to China’s standards of behaviour. This will restrict our freedom of speech, opinion, right to assembly and job opportunities. China has influenced policies in these countries where it has gained an upper hand to limit family size, alter education of values, to prohibit the transferring of family values to children, and weaken religious observance. We already have enough difficulty trying to raise our families according to our own values in our present culture without having to deal with pressure from influential Chinese officials molding government policy. We cannot allow this to happen.

China’s attempts to influence Canada include the following:

  • China’s largest state-owned investment fund, Chengdong Investment Corporation, is one of the largest investors in a company that the Canadian government uses to collect and process personal information from visa applications it receives from around the world. These visa applications provide fingerprints, photos, biographical information, and other personal data. This information allows China to obtain control over individuals living within our borders once they have settled here.
  • In October 2018, a Chinese state-owned construction corporation, called China Communication Construction Company (CCCC), signed a $1.5 billion construction deal to purchase Canada’s third-largest construction company, AECON.
    The CCCC has a sordid history, which led to its disbarment from World Bank projects for eight years. The reason for this disbarment was that the CCCC was involved in bid rigging and strong-arming competitors. With the purchase of AECON, China would achieve control of the Canadian construction industry by underbidding competitors because of unlimited funding provided by Beijing. The Liberal cabinet, however, approved the sale of AECON, undoubtedly influenced by two former Liberal cabinet ministers who would benefit handsomely from this sale. The Conservative and NDP opposition, as well as members of the public, raised concerns about the proposed sale. As a result, a review of the deal took place under the federal Investment Canada Act, causing a reluctant Liberal cabinet to withdraw its approval of the sale because of national security reasons.
  • China is purchasing Canadian gold mines at a rapid rate. This is because gold plays a significant role in certain nuclear-related operations. In May 2020, the Chinese Shandong Gold Mining Company Limited, announced a deal to purchase the Hope Bay gold mine in Nunavut for $250 million. The mine is situated near a highly strategic shipping route connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This sale was important to China, which has a tremendous appetite for securing control of the Arctic for its own strategic purposes.
    In October 2020, the Liberal cabinet, under pressure from the opposition, intelligence sources and the public, ordered a national review of the sale. This resulted in the rejection of the purchase of the mine by Chinese interests for national security reasons.
  • The Chinese government requested that its telecom giant, Huawei, participate in building Canada’s 5G wireless networks by supplying its equipment. Huawei, however, has close ties to the Chinese military. For this reason, Canada’s closest allies in the “five eyes” intelligence network – namely, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand – have withdrawn Huawei’s participation in their networks. The Canadian government has refused to make a decision on the Huawei deal, despite the fact that on November 18, 2020, the opposition parties passed a motion demanding that Huawei’s offer not be accepted for national security reasons. Trudeau has, to date, refused to make a decision on Huawei. This delay has enabled the federal Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council to give $7 million to Canadian researchers to assist in carrying out research on projects in collaboration with Huawei. The collaboration with Huawei serves the interests of a foreign government (China) and creates yet another national security risk for Canada, since it gives the Chinese government, through Huawei, access to our intelligence service operations.
  • Multiple needy/greedy Canadian universities (nine in total) have entered into partnership arrangements with China worth billions of dollars in order to develop surveillance technology and intelligence data. By collaborating with Canadian universities, the Chinese military is enhanced by acquiring such information. To further its partnerships with the universities, China has enrolled Chinese defence scientists, graduate students, and visiting scholars in Canadian universities to enable them to obtain information to pass on to China.
  • Information received under the Access to Information Act in 2020, revealed, inadvertently, that in 2018, Canada permitted the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to participate in cold weather manoeuvres at the Petawawa, Ontario military base. The agreement to do so was initiated in August 2013, under the Conservatives, prior to the rise of China’s current President Xi Jinping, whose rise to power marked a new, more aggressive China. Under this agreement, Chinese military leaders were also invited to attend the Canadian Security Studies Programme at Canadian Forces College in Toronto and a United Nations peacekeeping course at the Canadian, army-affiliated Peace Support Training Centre in Kingston. However, in December 2018, Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, an executive with Huawei and the daughter of the Chinese founder of Huawei, which is controlled by the Chinese government, for extradition to the U.S. on charges of fraud. In retaliation, two innocent Canadian individuals have been incarcerated in China because of Canada’s failure to release Meng. Because of this action by China, Canadian General Vance, Chief of the Defense Staff, cancelled the 2019 winter exercises with the PLA. This caused alarm at the highest level of Global Affairs Canada, whose officials objected to General Vance’s decision. Global Affairs’ objections were based on the belief that the unilateral decision by General Vance would be interpreted by China as “unhelpful” and could damage Canada’s long-term relationship with China.
    Prime Minister Trudeau also panicked at this cancellation and has demanded that, henceforth, the Canadian military not cancel any more arrangements with the PLA, except with his express permission. It seems that the national security of Canada takes a backseat to Trudeau’s desire for a close relationship with China.

Military War Games in Wuhan, China

Although General Vance cancelled the military manoeuvres at Camp Petawawa in 2019, he did allow the Canadian Armed Forces to participate in the October 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, China. During the games, which was a propaganda coup for Beijing, a military march was scheduled to take place in front of a dais on which Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un were standing. Germany, South Korea, Finland, France, Greece and countless other countries ignored the dictators when they marched past the dais by refusing to salute them. The U.S. troops did not even march, but sauntered unenthusiastically past the dais, chatting and laughing together, talking on their cellphones, taking selfies, and completely ignoring the two dictators. Australia refused to march in the parade altogether.

However, the Canadian military present were ordered by their superiors to march past the dais in close military formation and to smartly salute the two dictators. The Canadian troops did so, to Canada’s everlasting shame.

Conclusion

It is reasonable to conclude that the Trudeau government maintains a uniquely pliant and yielding attitude toward China’s ruthless expansion attempts in this country. The record shows that Trudeau cannot be trusted to protect Canada’s national security or economic interest in its relationship with China.

Where does this leave Canadian families? Utterly vulnerable.