Canadian public health authorities didn’t have to let the Wuhan Institute of Virology infiltrate and co-opt our country’s highest-security biolab. The warning signs had been there for years, and no one to our knowledge was holding a gun to the heads of the rubber-stampers who authorized a security-threat-flagged scientist’s shipment of live Ebola back to the motherland.
That’s part of why the latest report from the House of Commons committee on China, released Tuesday (conveniently, on the day of the American presidential election), is such a puzzling read.
Though a lot of the information contained within has previously trickled into public knowledge, through reporting, committee hearings and released records, the Commons committee’s synthesis shows how Canadian authorities reacted with the haste of a slug — and continue to leave gaping holes in the security of research that can literally be weaponized against human health.
The report sets out a comedy of errors that preceded the 2019 expulsion of scientists Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng, both Canadian citizens from China working at the Winnipeg National Microbiology Lab, who were ousted for “administrative” reasons. Rest at below link…
Jamie Sarkonak: Canada still hasn't learned from Winnipeg-Wuhan lab incident — National Post
New Commons report wisely recommends blacklisting the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researchers from receiving Canadian fundingapple.news
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland thinks China could be the tie that binds the new Trump White House and the Liberal government.
Despite harsh words from President-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies toward Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in particular, Freeland says she remains undeterred in wanting to find common ground with the incoming U.S. administration, etc…
Speaking after a Canada-U.S. cabinet committee meeting on Wednesday, she said the best way to collaborate with Trump 2.0 is to look for “win-win outcomes.”
“I think the position on China is one area of clearly shared views and shared approach between Canada and the United States,” she said, adding it was one of the subjects that Trump and Trudeau touched on during their conversation the day after the U.S. election.
Freeland says she is convinced that her government is in a better position than it was during Trump’s first mandate — pointing to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement negotiated by Trump and former trade representative Robert Lighthizer.
“That agreement means that Canada is on a better and stronger footing vis-à-vis the U.S. than we were with the first Trump administration,” she said.
Freeland has been spearheading the government’s efforts on Canada-U.S. relations since Trump’s win 10 days ago. She has met with leaders in the steel, automotive, energy and artificial intelligence sectors, and will be meeting with leaders in the nuclear sector Friday.
Freeland confident Liberal government is 'very aligned' with Trump team on China — National Post
Freeland says she is convinced that her government is in a better position than it was during Trump’s first mandate — pointing to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement
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Trump’s next national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has long criticized Trudeau’s stance on China and said in no uncertain terms Trudeau has to go.
In May, Waltz cheered on Poilievre on X, saying he is “going to send Trudeau packing in 2025 (finally) and start digging Canada out of the progressive mess it’s in.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, called Canada “increasingly authoritarian and despotic” and called the prime minister “far-left Trudeau.”
And Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has become one of Trump’s closest allies, wrote on X, which he owns, that the prime minister “will be gone in the upcoming election.”
Maybe there’s a messaging issue?