Pierre Jasmin, from the Québec Movement for Peace, has written an article about Tuesday’s panel. [A video is available HERE.]
Thanks to Michel Duguay, from Science for Peace, we now have a translation of the article available. This translation, and the original link, are available below.
Sinophobia – as contagious as COVID-19
By Pierre Jasmin, Québec Movement for Peace – translation Michel Duguay, Science for Peace
en français: https://lautjournal.info/20201126/deux-ans-de-detention-deja-meng-wang-zhou
http://www.artistespourlapaix.org/?p=19665
In her column of November 25, 2020, Francine Pelletier invited our COVID-19 policy to “Canadianize” itself, provoking a salutary rush of outraged comments from regular readers of the Montreal French-language newspaper, Le Devoir, refusing to see the Quebec Health jurisdiction being flouted. I agree, but shouldn’t we all look further, towards the World Health Organization and towards the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth (Riccardo Petrella) in view of a world policy of free vaccines and accessible to all countries, even impoverished ones?
Had they listened to the WHO by the end of February, Trudeau would have closed airports and Legault-Arruda would have recommended distancing and wearing masks, arguably responsible for Asian countries’ remarkable performance in terms of low infection rates. But, as I have been telling it for years, the UN is discredited by the Canadian government because of:
- Trudeau’s defense minister being submissive to pro-nuclear NATO;
- Trudeau’s four-year forced ties to racist President Donald Trump, who pulled his country out of the WHO out of sheer hatred of its African Director Ghebreyesus;
- Canada’s recent sinophobic aggressiveness, felt by new Canadians of Asian origin, since the kidnapping of Meng Wang-zhou took place two years ago on December 1 (which the Artists for Peace have commented on in several articles).
NEXT TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, AT NOON, Les Artistes Pour La Paix invites its members to commemorate and denounce the kidnapping by joining with masks and distancing in Montreal at the Monk metro station for a demonstration of the Quebec Movement for Peace in front of the office of Justice Minister David Lametti (catapulted to the succession of the too-honest indigenous minister, Jodi Wilson-Raybould).
Last night, November 24, at the initiative of Ken Stone (Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War – HCSW.ca), a two-hour webinar was hosted by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute’s director, Bianca Mugyenyi (her second debate in less than a week!) where Canadian experts discussed the legal aspect of this shameful affair for Canada, responsible for the deterioration of relations with China. John Philpot, lawyer and expert in international criminal law, exposed the fundamental injustice of Ms. Meng’s arrest, as trade unionist Cathy Walker; Christopher Black of the Canadian Peace Congress; Dr. Atif Kubursi, world-renowned economist; and journalist KJ Noh painted a positive picture of an evolving China… But that was up to the arrest of Ms. Meng, requested by Trump on the basis of his tearing up of the JCPOA treaty with Iran. Since then, ulcerated by the concerted attack against Huawei’s number 2 (Ms. Meng) with its thwarted 5G objectives, China has cut several commercial and cultural exchanges with Canada and jailed two Canadian spies (not to mention ended purchasing arrangement with Canada for canola, pork, and lobsters). Commenting on their arrests, the NDP and especially the Green Party, represented by M.P. Paul Manly – harassed since the announcement of the debate by a sinophobic conservative press – carried the essence of their arguments on the two Michaels’ fate, slightly diverting the debate.
Despite such tensions, perhaps responsible for the cancellation of her presence at the debate by MP Niki Ashton – whose courage we praise for having sponsored a House of Commons petition signed by more than five hundred Canadians – the debate, followed by at least 1250 spectators on Zoom and FB Livestream, managed to overcome the proverbial shyness of the Chinese to express their frustrations, but also their dreams of a better common future. The release of Ms. Meng, who has not been able to hug her children for two years, would be for us an important humanitarian gesture that would prevent the degradation of the international opinion facing our country: Canada used to be respected by the U.N. under Trudeau, the father, and Jean Chrétien for its courage in keeping a distance from the militarist expeditions of its bulky neighbor to the south. The release of Ms. Meng is also needed to curb the creeping sinophobia of which we heard some heartbreaking echoes during the debate.
Our recent article on militarism already observed how the insatiable military-industrial complex, eagerly seeking lucrative arms orders, the sources of its staggering profits, is influencing the media to slowly replace their favorite target, namely Russia, by a new bogeyman, feared because of its progress in computers and telecommunications, the Middle Empire, China, towards which the USA is now dragging us Canadians into a new cold war.
A copy of the translated article in Microsoft Word format is available below: