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Tuesday December 8, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 8, 2020

Canadians must never forget ‘the two Michaels’

If any Canadians still wonder why their country isn’t ready to become one of China’s best bosom buddies, this week should remind them.

November 20, 2020

As of Thursday, Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig will have suffered for two full years in Chinese jails where they were almost certainly locked up for political, rather than legal, reasons.

Just think back to Dec. 10, 2018 and consider all the things you’ve done, all the places you’ve been, all the people you’ve seen and all the freedoms you’ve savoured since then. Then remember the men who are now widely referred to as “the two Michaels.” 

While both have had only restricted contact with the outside world, we know they’ve endured months of daily interrogations in deplorable, solitary confinement-like conditions where the lights were kept on 24 hours a day. And while for a time Spavor and Kovrig were at least allowed an occasional, brief visit from Canadian consular staff, the Chinese are now using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to make them even more unreachable — and alone.

That this constitutes cruel, inhumane treatment should go without saying. But it is also egregiously unjust and underlines the stark difference between Canada’s adherence to the rule of international law and China’s inclination to make up the rules that suit its fancy. 

December 12, 2018

The Chinese incarcerated the two Michaels just days after Canada’s house arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who is wanted on fraud charges in the United States. While Spavor and Kovrig languish in cramped cells, Meng is out on bail, living comfortably in Vancouver where she divides her time between her two mansions. While Spavor and Kovrig have been denied proper legal representation, Meng has access to the small army of lawyers she hired to fight her extradition to the U.S.

From the day of Meng’s arrest two years ago, the Canadian government clearly explained a legal agreement with the U.S. compelled it to take action against her. In contrast, while China has formally charged Spavor and Kovrig with espionage, its real motive for arresting them is different. 

July 25, 2019

This is hostage diplomacy, plain and simple, a blatant attempt by a global superpower to force Canada to bow to its commands. The Chinese themselves basically confirmed this is the case in June. That’s when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said it was “within the rule of law” for China to release Spavor and Kovrig — if Canada freed Meng first.

Of course, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was right not to buckle to the pressure on him to interfere with Canadian courts and free Meng. If you give in to a bully once, the bully will inevitably be back again to twist your arm into doing something else. And this is the same bully that has also arbitrarily blocked its imports of Canadian farm products, all while badgering Canada to allow China’s Huawei Technologies Co., equipment to be used in Canada’s 5G wireless networks.

China is a country that, because of its political power and economic prowess, Canada must engage. But its aggressive dealings with Canada, including sending over state agents to intimidate Canadian citizens who publicly criticize China, mean we should keep a wary distance — and keep it out of our 5G network. 

Such a relationship should be reserved for a true friend. But a true friend wouldn’t have kept Spavor and Kovrig behind bars for two years. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday November 6, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 6, 2020

Trump’s Stunning News Conference

What the president of the United States did tonight wasn’t complicated but it was stunning, even after four long years of the politically extraordinary.

February 22, 2011

President Trump attacked democracy.

In his remarks tonight from the White House, Mr. Trump lied about the vote count, smeared his opponents and attempted to undermine the integrity of our electoral system.

“If you count the legal votes, I win,” he said, before ticking off a litany of baseless claims about ways his campaign had supposedly been cheated by his opponents, nonpartisan poll workers and a vast conspiracy of technology companies and big business.

But nothing is “rigged” or “stolen” or “illegal.” No one is “doing a lot of bad things.”

Donald Trump is simply losing.

And he’s apparently decided to try and take our system down with him.

John McCain’s revenge

Joe Biden has been cutting into Mr. Trump’s lead, or expanding his own, in three of the four states that will decide the next president: Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. Notably, in the state where Mr. Trump appears to be making gains — Arizona — the president seems to take little issue with the vote count.

The votes that Mr. Trump calls “late” and “illegal” were postmarked by Election Day, making them valid. In Pennsylvania, the Republican-led state legislature wouldn’t allow poll workers to start counting mail ballots until Election Day. So now, they’re being counted.

Instead of letting the process play out, the president is calling on election officials to stop counting ballots, potentially disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters. As James Baker, the former secretary of state who led the Republican legal and political team during the Florida recount battle in 2000, told my colleague Peter Baker today: “That’s a very hard decision to defend in a democracy.” 

There’s also a pragmatic question about the president’s allegations: If Democrats were going to rig an election, why didn’t they do a better job of it? After many Democrats all but predicted a landslide, the party has so far lost seats in the House and faces a steep path to take control of the Senate. Mr. Trump touted those Republican victories in his comments tonight.

On social media, his family members and allies have been calling for Republicans, like Senator Lindsey Graham, to support the president’s claims — even trying to make the issue an early litmus test for the 2024 campaign. (We haven’t even finished with 2020!) Of course, Republicans who back Mr. Trump could be throwing into question the validity of their own victories.

So with a few exceptions, they’ve largely returned to the position they often adopt with the president: silence. But it may become increasingly difficult to stay quiet. (New York Times) 

 

Friday April 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 19, 2019

Historic result for PEI Green Party could mean bigger things coming

For the first time ever, the Green Party has risen to Official Opposition status in a Canadian province.

October 23, 2002

The party, led by Peter Bevan-Baker, won eight seats in Prince Edward Island in a vote that saw the Progressive Conservatives form a minority government under premier-designate Dennis King.  The Tory’s won 12 seats.

“It’s a historic night, and a big breakthrough for the PEI Greens,” says Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, “I think it’s really an indication, the fact increasingly more and more voters want to see a new way of doing politics.”

“I think Greens bring a fresh voice and a new perspective, and really a desire as much as possible to work across party lines to solve some of the big challenges that we face.  And do it in a way that puts people first, that puts good policy ahead of party.”

May 31, 2017

He says in the past, people thought success for the Greens were more of “a west coast thing,” alluding to federal leader Elizabeth May, who is MP for a riding in British Columbia, as well as three MLA’s holding seats in the BC legislature.

And then with members holding three seats in New Brunswick’s provincially, some were thinking it was a west and east coast thing.

But with Tuesday’s vote, along with Schreiner’s own successful election bid in Ontario last October, he says we’re seeing a “green wave starting to build across the country.”

Now, what could this mean for future elections?

October 14, 2015

Schreiner says we could see our first indication of it during the fall federal election, and even in the next Ontario election in 2022.

He indicates there were five “high quality” people seeking the Green Party nomination in Guelph last year, along with contested nominations in Waterloo Region.

And he is already fielding calls from people interested in running in the next provincial election. (Source: Kitchener Today) 

 

Saturday November 3, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 3, 2018

‘Edge of the knife’: Trump drags divided states of America towards his midterms reckoning

Maureen Osiecki remembers the shock of Donald Trump winning her home state, Michigan, on his march to the White House. “My heart died,” she says of that night nearly two years ago. “My father turned over in his grave.”

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting: suspect Robert Bowers charged with 11 counts of murder

On 6 November, Osiecki gets her first chance to formally pass judgment on the Trump presidency. The midterm elections will decide control of Congress and could give the commander-in-chief a black eye. Few can remember midterms taking place in an America so perilously divided – underlined this week by pipe bomb packages sent to leading Democrats and a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue – or with a president so actively stoking the culture wars as an electoral strategy.

“He’s a pig,” said Osiecki, a 76-year-old retiree from a city planning department, sitting with friends in a Wendy’s restaurant in Pontiac. “No feeling, no empathy. My father was a Republican but we got along and didn’t call each other ‘horseface’.” 

The midterms, which early voting indicates could have their highest turnout in decades, are always more or less a vote of confidence in the sitting president. But Trump has put himself front and centre. “I’m not on the ticket, but I am on the ticket, because this is also a referendum about me,” he told supporters in Southaven, Mississippi.  “I want you to vote. Pretend I’m on the ballot.”

Where his predecessors have sought to build bridges and unify, he has embraced the politics of polarization across gender, race and culture lines in the hope of firing up his base, tacitly acknowledging he has lost a vast swath of the nation for good. The midterms will provide the first official measure of whether the sum of love for Trump is exceeded by the sum of hatred.

Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report newsletter, told an audience at the Washington Post this week: “The best way to think about where we are today is that we’re having elections in two different Americas.” (Continued: The Guardian) 

 

Tuesday January 31, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 31, 2017

Quebec City mosque shooting: Alexandre Bissonnette identified as alleged gunman

Quebec provincial police now say that only one of the two men detained Sunday night in connection with the mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec City that killed six people is considered a suspect.

Surete du Quebec said in a statement just after noon Monday the second person is considered a witness, but they did not offer any names. Media reports identified the “witness” as Mohamed Belkhadir. Earlier reports said the man’s name was Mohamed Khadir or El Khadir.

Reports from Quebec media, including La Presse, TVA, and Radio Canada, say that Alexandre Bissonnette is the lone person suspected in the shooting.

The horrific attacks occurred inside the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec in Quebec City’s Ste-Foy neighbourhood just before 8 p.m. ET, when a masked gunman entered the building and opened fire, according to witnesses and police.

The victims were identified as men who ranged in age from 35 to 60. Five people remain in hospital, with two of those in critical condition and the three others stable. At least 14 others suffered minor injuries and were released, according to the University of Quebec Hospital Centre spokeswoman Genevieve Dupuis.

Thirty-nine people escaped the mosque shooting without injuries.  (Source: Global News)