More needs to be done about China's belligerence
Episode Stats
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188.46863
Summary
After COVID-19, many Canadians are saying they don't want to think about it anymore. They want to forget about the past year and move forward. And look, I don't blame them. But there's one thing for sure that we shouldn't be putting behind us. One urgent question and issue that still remains, which is accountability for China and their role in the origins of Coevid19 and covering it up.
Transcript
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So many Canadians are saying they don't want to think about COVID-19 anymore. They want to enjoy
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their summer. No more restrictions. And in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, they've got just that.
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Restrictions are over. Mask mandates are done. People just want to live their life. They want
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to forget about the past year and a half and say, let's just put that behind us. Let's move forward.
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And look, I don't blame them. I feel the same way. But there's one thing for sure that we shouldn't
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be putting behind us. One urgent question and issue that still remains, which is accountability
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for China and their role in the origins of COVID-19 and covering it up. The World Health Organization,
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to their credit, has said they need a second probe now into the origins of what exactly happened in
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Wuhan involving the Institute of Virology, that lab where the virus may or may not have escaped from.
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All of those original questions, they say, we got to return to, we've got to get more
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accountability on it. China is already saying, uh-uh, we're done. No more probe. No more questions.
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Look away, folks. That is unacceptable. And we have to hold them to account. And this all brings in the
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bigger picture questions about Canada's relationship with China. Of course, the U.S.'s relationship with
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China. China's rising influence and why, after what we've just gone through with COVID-19,
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such a traumatic experience, all of the harms that were brought to society, we've really got to talk
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more about the China relationship. Some very interesting posts to social media that I want
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to draw to your attention that were put forward by David Mulroney, who is Canada's former ambassador
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to China. Someone who really knows what he's talking about and who has been reflecting on these
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issues a great deal. Take a look at this. David Mulroney, he writes,
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China is emboldened because it believes that the West, Canada included, isn't just in retreat.
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It's collapsing on itself. He says this is an abstract Marxist theory. It comes from reading
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our papers, listening to our artists, athletes, academics, politicians, especially our politicians,
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says David Mulroney. In another post, he talks about some of the things that Canada needs to do
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to remedy this situation. And look, they are big picture approaches, but he's really onto something.
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Dave Mulroney, he advises that the first steps of a Canadian-China strategy should be moving
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resolutely against China's influence and interference operations in Canada, reducing our vulnerability to
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China's economic coercion, and number three, establishing new alliances to push back. Really
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important stuff. And actually, at the last G7 meeting, Joe Biden sat down with Justin Trudeau and said,
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look, you guys, you got to do more on this front. We want you to lead the charge to push back
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against what's going on in the Western provinces against the Uyghur Muslims in China, because we
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got to have all hands on deck dealing with all of this. And while the liberals, to their credit,
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they did speak up at the UN and they were sort of the leading voices to say, look, we got to hold
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China to account on the Uyghur Muslim situation there. But that's just one issue. And COVID-19,
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well, that's just one issue as well, even though it's a massive issue. There are so many issues when it
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comes to China right now. And we got to get so much more serious in the way we reflect on it,
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the way we talk about it. Listen to what David Mulrooney is saying. This is not just some random
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guy on social media. This is an academic. This is a diplomat. This is a guy who was our ambassador
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on the ground in China for several years. He knows what he's talking about. More and more experts,
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more and more people who really understand the issue in depth, they know what they're talking
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about. And they're urging Canadians and they're urging Justin Trudeau to pay much more attention to