Beijing – mackaycartoons

Wednesday January 19, 2022

January 19, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 19, 2022

Athletes to face rigorous tests at Beijing Games with COVID-19 and freedom of expression

August 12, 2021

The Beijing Olympic Committee is using stricter than usual testing for COVID-19, making it harder for Canadian athletes, especially those who have recently recovered from the virus, to pass tests upon arriving in China, CBC Sports has learned.

The cycle threshold (CT) value being used in China to detect an infection is 40, Dr. Mike Wilkinson, chief medical officer for the Canadian Olympic Committee, confirmed Monday.

The higher the CT value, the less infectious a person with COVID-19 is.

Many places in Canada use a CT value of 35.

The NBA and NHL use 30. The NFL has set its threshold at 35.

“I think what Beijing is doing is that they’re doing everything they can to ensure they don’t have positives coming in,” Wilkinson said. (CBC News)

Meanwhile, competitors at the Beijing Winter Olympics will face an “Orwellian surveillance state” in China and could put themselves in danger if they speak out in support of the Uyghur Muslims, human rights and athlete advocacy groups have said.

Thursday December 9, 2021

December 9, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 9, 2021

Canada joining diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

August 12, 2021

Canada will not send any official representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February as part of a growing diplomatic boycott by allies over China’s record of human rights abuses.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Wednesday after facing several days of questions over whether Canada would stand with allies that have already announced similar plans.

“We are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games this winter,” said Trudeau, adding he does not believe the move from Canada or by allies will “come as a surprise” to China.

“We have been very clear over the past many years of our deep concerns around human rights violations and this is a continuation of us expressing our deep concerns for human rights violations.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has worked in the past with the Canadian Olympic Committee to try to keep athletes safe while competing abroad.

February 20, 2021

Calls have been growing over recent days as Canada’s closest allies have announced their plans not to send official representatives to the Beijing Olympics in February as part of a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses, particularly against the Uyghur ethnic minority.

The United States, the U.K., and Australia all announced their decisions this week.

Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden, an Olympic gold medalist kayaker, said a diplomatic boycott is one of the tools at Canada’s disposal and that he doesn’t think such a move would cause additional stress on athletes.

“My priority is to make sure that athletes have the opportunity to compete, and of their safety and security as well,” he said on Wednesday.

March 24, 2008

A diplomatic boycott refers specifically to non-athletes. It would see countries that agree to take part in a boycott pledge not to send diplomatic missions or representatives to attend the ceremonies and the events themselves.

Normally, participating countries typically do send official representatives from their governments.

For example, former Canadian governor general David Johnson attended the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for six days as the country’s official representative. (Global)

Thursday August 12, 2021

August 19, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 12, 2021

Canada Considers Countering Winter Games and Hostage Diplomacy

Canada is being urged by legal and international experts to apply diplomatic pressure on both China and the United States to secure the release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, following Spavor’s 11-year prison sentence by a Chinese court.

December 8, 2020

Spavor, an entrepreneur, was detained in China in December 2018 along with Kovrig on allegations of state spying, charges widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in connection with a U.S. extradition request. Meng’s formal extradition hearing began on Wednesday in British Columbia.

Since their arrest, Canada has been pushing for the release of Spavor and Kovrig. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau condemned Spavor’s sentence on Wednesday.

“This decision was made after a process that lack both fairness and transparency including a trial that did not satisfy the minimum standards required by international law,” Garneau said at a press conference, adding Canada was is ‘intense’ discussions with both Chinese and U.S. officials to free both Spavor and Kovrig, who is still awaiting trial in China.

February 12, 2021

Trudeau, in a statement, called the sentence unacceptable and unjust.

“For Mr. Spavor, as well as for Michael Kovrig who has also been arbitrarily detained, our top priority remains securing their immediate release. We will continue working around the clock to bring them home as soon as possible,” he said.

Since the arrests in 2018, Canada has decried what it calls “hostage diplomacy” and in February launched the ‘Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations,’ which has now been endorsed by 66 countries.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party leader has warned that it may soon be too dangerous for Canadians to travel to China for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (CTV)

December 12, 2018

Speaking at a news conference on Ontario on Tuesday, leader Erin O’Toole said: “We are approaching a point where it won’t be safe for Canadians, including Olympic athletes, to travel to China.”

Diplomats from dozens of countries gathered at Canada’s embassy in Beijing on Wednesday to hear the Spavor verdict. The fate of a fellow Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, remains unclear.

O’Toole was speaking after a court rejected the appeal of a third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, whose prison term in a drug case was abruptly increased to death following Meng’s arrest.

March 24, 2008

Asked about the winter Games, O’Toole said: “Yes Canada should be considering a boycott.

“And I’ve said we’re going to be watching the decision very closely. Beijing has to know that the world is watching the genocide taking place against the Uyghurs. They’ve watched what’s been happening in Hong Kong and the situation with Mr Schellenberg, Mr Spavor and Mr Kovrig.”

He said Canada would have to think “long and hard on whether we reward a country like that with the Games”. (The Guardian)

Tuesday February 27, 2018

February 26, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 27, 2018

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018: ‘the Games of new horizons’?

Moments before the XXIII Winter Games ended amid a furious barrage of K-pop and firecrackers, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, insisted: “We have seen here how sport can make the world a better place … these are the Games of new horizons.”

July 21, 2016

Watching athletes from North and South Korea strolling happily together, for once separated by centimetres rather than 73 years’ antipathy, it was entirely possible to be swept along by waves of sentiment and hope.

Yet another image of Bach, from earlier in the day, was also hard to shake: one of the IOC president despondently confirming that Russian athletes would not march under their own flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony, because of two doping violations at these Games.

Especially as, with his very next breath, he also promised that the Russian Olympic Committee’s suspension would be lifted very soon if there were no more positive tests. That suspension was imposed on 5 December and will have probably lasted less than 100 days when it is lifted.

August 19, 2004

As a response to the most audacious state-sponsored doping programme in history, it counts as barely a slap on the wrist – even when a $15m fine, being forced to call themselves “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, and a ban on the Russian flag and anthem in Pyeongchang is tacked on.

A closing ceremony that began with the crowd of 35,000 people counting down together to say “one” as the athletes entered the stadium ended with the Russians close to being officially readmitted to the Olympic fold.

September 9, 2000

On the final day of competition, the Olympic Athletes from Russia won their second gold of the Games, in the men’s ice hockey. But it only inched them up to 13th in the medal table – a far cry from their first place in Sochi when their athletes were fuelled by a cocktail of steroids as well as patriotic fervour.

The next Winter Olympic games will be in Beijing in 2022. (Source: The Guardian)

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Thursday August 7, 2008

August 7, 2008 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 7, 2008

About those U.S. cyclists with gas masks

American athletes arriving to compete at the 2008 Olympics and wearing protective masks inside the Beijing airport they were acting like jerks.

Yeah, no kidding, the air in Beijing is worth complaining about.

These are athletes at the peak of their conditioning. But they can’t endure the air inside a building? While they’re walking, rather than running or breathing hard? And for the few minutes it would take to get past all the photographers and into the privacy of their buses or cars?

But complaints should come in the context of realizing that Chinese officials, companies, and citizens actually have done quite a lot to try to cope with the problem (details here) — and that it’s sad in many ways, rather than contemptible, that the first view the world’s TV audience will have of spiffed-up Beijing will be of the opaque gray-brown skies. Unless, of course, there’s a big cleansing wind out of Mongolia right now.

It’s embarrassing enough for the Chinese hosts that the air looks so bad. It’s tasteless, prissy, and showboating for visitors to rub it in this way. (Again, I’m talking about wearing the masks inside, in front of cameras, while standing around — not sensible precautions for training.) (Source: The Atlantic)