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Jean Chretien

Wednesday November 16, 2022

November 16, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 16, 2022

Has the Trudeau government finally got Beijing’s number?

An ancient Chinese proverb: To learn is to come face to face with one’s own ignorance.

December 5, 2017

Seven years ago, full of naive bravado, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government embarked on a quest for tighter ties with the People’s Republic of China. It assumed it was signing up for all sorts of cost-free economic and political rewards. Instead, it got an expensive education.

Another Chinese proverb: Strict teachers produce outstanding students. The Trudeau government has spent the past seven years getting schooled by one of the world’s most unreasonable tutors, the Xi Jinping regime. The lessons are paying off.

On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly gave a speech introducing her government’s new Indo-Pacific strategy. The full policy won’t be unveiled until next month, but the minister teased its key elements. The most important involves a new approach to China.

The government has evolved from dreaming of ever-closer economic integration with China, to trying to minimize conflict – the better to return to the quest for closer ties – to now, as a cum laude graduate of the Xi Jinping School of Experiential Education, recognizing that China, at least in its current form, is an adversary and a threat.

November 20, 2020

Ms. Joly says that Canada will of course continue to have extensive trade and economic ties with the world’s second-largest economy. Given how much of the world’s industrial capacity has moved there over the past two decades, there is no other option. But the government now recognizes that Beijing’s autocratic regime, its hostility to the rules-based international order, and its eagerness to impose its will on smaller states, is a challenge to Canada’s interests.

What’s more, Ms. Joly says that, to give Canada the heft to stand up to China, we have to bolster our traditional alliances with Washington and Europe, while creating new ones with countries such as Japan, South Korea and India.

It’s a long way from where the Trudeau government started.

In 2016, as we watched the Trudeau government “make like a pretzel while attempting to court the hard men of Beijing,” we asked whether “Canada [was] caving into China’s demands,” and whether the Trudeau government was “clueless as to the brutal nature of the regime it is dealing with.”

December 8, 2017

In 2017, as the government bid for a free-trade accord with China, and China started upping its demands, we wrote that Ottawa “did not appear to be sufficiently aware of the potential dangers and downsides.” And we asked, not for the first or last time: “Does the Trudeau government, and the Prime Minister in particular, appreciate who they are dealing with?”

A few months later, after Mr. Trudeau went to China seeking that free-trade deal but was snubbed by his hosts, we wrote that this failure would “come to be seen as less of an embarrassment, and more of a blessing.”

And that was before Canada arrested a Chinese executive on an American extradition warrant, and China retaliated by turning two Canadians into hostages. “The case of Meng Wanzhou has torpedoed the Trudeau government’s China policy,” we wrote in late 2018. “At the same time, it has also sunk China’s Canada policy. Call it a win-win.”

January 29, 2019

“It’s never pleasant to discover the gap between one’s wishes and objective reality, but it is the beginning of the path to wisdom. The Trudeau government is being forced to wise up about the nature of the People’s Republic of China.”

A year later, in December of 2019, with the Two Michaels still behind bars, we wrote that “Beijing has spent the last year giving Canada a special education in how it sees our not-at-all special relationship. We should be thankful for the lessons. The Trudeau government, and the entire political and business establishment, must study them carefully. It may allow this country to finally get over its China delusions.”

February 20, 2021

The Trudeau government has since made progress on getting over those delusions, and let us give thanks for that. But it’s still a few steps short of the end of its 12-step program.

This week brought news that, according to information obtained by Global News, the PM was given an intelligence report last January – that’s nearly a year ago – detailing extensive Chinese meddling in the 2019 Canadian election. There are also credible reports of Beijing meddling in the 2021 election, in particular targeting China-critical Conservatives. What has the Trudeau government done about that? So far, nothing. (The Globe & Mail) 

 

Posted in: Canada, International Tagged: 2022-38, Canada, China, dance, diplomacy, G20, Hu Jintao, Jean Chretien, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Mao Zedong, Paul Martin, Pierre Trudeau, Xi Jinping

Wednesday October 27, 2021

October 27, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 27, 2021

That’s enough, Jean Chrétien

Jean Chretien Cartoon Gallery

The former Indian Affairs Minister has had decades to ponder his failings. It’s not clear he even understands what the residential schools were.

“This problem was never mentioned when I was minister. Never.”

This was Jean Chrétien’s response on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle Sunday night when asked about the abuse of Indigenous children at residential schools when he was minister of Indian Affairs from 1968 to 1974. It might even be true: Maybe none of his underlings bothered telling him. Alas, that can’t save 87-year-old Teflon Jean this time. If he didn’t know it, he bloody well should have.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report records that in 1970, Jacques Serre, a child-care worker at the Anglican residential school in La Tuque, Que., advised Chrétien’s Indian Affairs ministry in writing that another employee had “taken liberties (with a student) in the presence of a third party.” The ministry asked its Quebec director to look into it, but no one even bothered tracking down the alleged victim, who had left the school.

A year later the La Tuque school’s administrator, Jean Bonnard, called the gendarmes over his suspicions that another child-care worker was conducting “certain ‘activities’ of a sexual nature” with his charges. Bonnard duly informed Indian Affairs of this. The police interviewed four boys, concluding the behaviour had “been going on for some time,” and then nothing happened.

June 2, 2021

Not only was the La Tuque school Chrétien’s responsibility as minister of Indian Affairs. It was in his riding.

In the early 1970s, Chrétien’s ministry received at least four complaints from the Catholic St. Anne’s residential school in Fort Albany, Ont., including of physical assault and of at least one teacher keeping “guns and live ammunition in class to scare the students.” This week, NDP MP Charlie Angus produced a letter from a teacher at St. Anne’s addressed directly to Chrétien, complaining of a “prejudicial attitude” among staff members to the Indigenous people of the community.

The Truth and Reconciliation report records the case of Harry Joseph, an employee at the Anglican residential school in Alert Bay, B.C., who in 1970 pleaded guilty to indecent assault after having been fired for having “interfered with two other girls by removing (their) bed covers and fondling them.”

November 9, 2018

Perhaps this news never made it down the telegraph to Ottawa. But it was the ministry itself that cashiered child-care worker Claude Frappier from his position at the Catholic residential school in Whitehorse in 1970 — though it didn’t bother informing the victims’ parents or the police. (Frappier was belatedly convicted in 1990 on 13 counts of sexual assault on boys aged eight to 11.)

The Truth and Reconciliation report records the case of Harry Joseph, an employee at the Anglican residential school in Alert Bay, B.C., who in 1970 pleaded guilty to indecent assault after having been fired for having “interfered with two other girls by removing (their) bed covers and fondling them.”

PM Merch

Perhaps this news never made it down the telegraph to Ottawa. But it was the ministry itself that cashiered child-care worker Claude Frappier from his position at the Catholic residential school in Whitehorse in 1970 — though it didn’t bother informing the victims’ parents or the police. (Frappier was belatedly convicted in 1990 on 13 counts of sexual assault on boys aged eight to 11.) (Continued: The National Post) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2021-35, Canada, glorification, indigenous, Jean Chretien, John A. Macdonald, legacy, Prime Minister, residential schools, Sir John A. MacDonald, statue, truth and reconciliation

Wednesday May 11, 2016

May 10, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday May 11, 2016 Jean Chretien says criminal records for pot possession 'completely unacceptable' Jean ChrŽtien says politicians have to adjust to changing times, as his own views on marijuana, capital punishment and other contentious issues evolved after he was first elected in the early 1960s. Whether it's pot smoking, abortion, gay marriage or the death penalty, the former prime minister says he's tried to reflect the spirit of the times Ñ even if his changing politics put him in conflict with his conservative upbringing in a large, Roman Catholic family in rural Quebec. "What were certain values 50 years ago, are not the same today. We have to live with that. It's not always easy," he said. When asked Monday about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to legalize the sale of marijuana, ChrŽtien said he is in favour of decriminalization. "What is completely unacceptable, in my judgment, is a young man smoking marijuana will have a criminal record for the rest of his life, (and) he can't cross the border Ñ come on," ChrŽtien said after a ceremony marking the official opening of a public policy think-tank at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "It is the modern thing to do ... You have to adjust to the new life.Ó When ChrŽtien was prime minister, his government tried in 2003 to pass a law decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the bill died when Parliament was prorogued. Earlier this year, Liberal MP Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, said Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be upheld until legalization is in place. Blair, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, is the Trudeau government's point man on the issue. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has said the government should decriminalize marijuana right away. "I'm glad Mr. ChrŽtien agrees with us, that would be my comment," NDP justice critic Murray Rankin said Monday. ChrŽtien, 82, said he

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 11, 2016

Jean Chretien says criminal records for pot possession ‘completely unacceptable’

Jean Chrétien says politicians have to adjust to changing times, as his own views on marijuana, capital punishment and other contentious issues evolved after he was first elected in the early 1960s.

April 8, 2003

Whether it’s pot smoking, abortion, gay marriage or the death penalty, the former prime minister says he’s tried to reflect the spirit of the times — even if his changing politics put him in conflict with his conservative upbringing in a large, Roman Catholic family in rural Quebec.

“What were certain values 50 years ago, are not the same today. We have to live with that. It’s not always easy,” he said.

When asked Monday about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to legalize the sale of marijuana, Chrétien said he is in favour of decriminalization.

Monday, July 29, 2013

July 29, 2013

“What is completely unacceptable, in my judgment, is a young man smoking marijuana will have a criminal record for the rest of his life, (and) he can’t cross the border — come on,” Chrétien said after a ceremony marking the official opening of a public policy think-tank at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“It is the modern thing to do … You have to adjust to the new life.”

When Chrétien was prime minister, his government tried in 2003 to pass a law decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the bill died when Parliament was prorogued.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday January 13, 2016 The Blair roach project has won a powerful supporter. Premier Kathleen Wynne said she is pleased Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, now Scarborough Southwest MP, to lead the marijuana legalization efforts. ÒI have a lot of respect for Bill Blair. I think that heÕll do a great job and his taking on of that role is the beginning of that national conversation that I said we have to have,Ó Wynne told reporters Monday at QueenÕs Park. The premier added that she was heartened that Blair is embracing her proposal to have cannabis sold through government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario outlets. ÒIÕm encouraged that he had, as a preliminary approach, that he thinks that it might make sense to use a distribution network thatÕs in place, . . . (although thatÕs) not a foregone conclusion,Ó she said. ÒHeÕs got a lot of people to talk to and heÕs got a lot of questions to ask and a lot of decisions to make over the coming months, so I look forward to that conversation.Ó Blair, a rookie MP who is parliamentary secretary to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, will work with a three-member cabinet team and a soon-to-be-named federal-provincial-territorial task force to develop the policy for legalizing marijuana. On Friday, Blair said Ottawa will look to Colorado and other jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana sales. ÒWe have pretty robust systems of regulation for other intoxicants in this country, mostly overseen by the provinces, and so weÕve already got a model, a framework we can build on here,Ó he said. ÒI think there are certain modifications or adjustments that we may have to make for cannabis as opposed to alcohol, but I think there is already a strong system in place for the control and regulationÓ of marijuana sales here. The police veteran, who himself has never smoked marijuana, pointed out that it is Òvery difficul

January 13, 2016

Earlier this year, Liberal MP Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, said Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be upheld until legalization is in place.

Blair, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, is the Trudeau government’s point man on the issue.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has said the government should decriminalize marijuana right away.

“I’m glad Mr. Chrétien agrees with us, that would be my comment,” NDP justice critic Murray Rankin said Monday.

Chrétien, 82, said he has never smoked cigarettes and he’s never tried pot.

“I don’t know what it is and I never tasted that,” he said. “I don’t know what is the effect.” (Source: CBC News)

2016-05-11tearsheet

Posted in: Canada Tagged: Canada, cannabis, decriminalization, drugs, hippy, Jean Chretien, Justin Trudeau, law, legalization, Marijuana, Parliament, regulation, tearsheet

Monday September 14, 2015

September 14, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Monday September 14, 2015 Trudeau enlists ChretienÕs support to attack Mulcair during Hamilton rally Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has enlisted the support of former prime minister Jean ChrŽtien to accuse the NDP of wanting to make it easier to break up the country. Trudeau told a rally Sunday in Hamilton that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair would put the possibility of Quebec separation back on the table. Standing alongside ChrŽtien, Trudeau said Mulcair would repeal the Clarity Act, which says any referendum requires a clear majority for separation. Trudeau said Mulcair believes a single vote Ñ 50 per cent plus one Ñ should decide whether Canada remains united, accusing the NDP leader of playing politics for the sake of gaining a few separatist votes. Mulcair has dismissed such criticism, saying he has fought for a united Canada his whole life but that the Clarity Act doesn't spell out what constitutes a majority. "I'll let Justin Trudeau continue with his golden oldies tour and bring out Jean ChrŽtien today and start talking about the quarrels of the past," Mulcair said earlier Sunday after making a senior health-care announcement in Vancouver. "We are talking about solving the problems for the future." (Source: Hamilton Spectator) http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5840348-trudeau-enlists-chretien-s-support-to-attack-mulcair-during-hamilton-rally/ Hamilton, Jean Chretien, Justin Trudeau, Liberal, #elxn42, relic, fossil, shadow, history, Canada, election, campaign

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday September 14, 2015

Trudeau enlists Chretien’s support to attack Mulcair during Hamilton rally

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has enlisted the support of former prime minister Jean Chrétien to accuse the NDP of wanting to make it easier to break up the country.

Neil Young / Gordon Lightfoot – 2013

Trudeau told a rally Sunday in Hamilton that NDP Leader Tom Mulcair would put the possibility of Quebec separation back on the table.

Standing alongside Chrétien, Trudeau said Mulcair would repeal the Clarity Act, which says any referendum requires a clear majority for separation.

Ed Schreyer – 2005

Trudeau said Mulcair believes a single vote — 50 per cent plus one — should decide whether Canada remains united, accusing the NDP leader of playing politics for the sake of gaining a few separatist votes.

Mulcair has dismissed such criticism, saying he has fought for a united Canada his whole life but that the Clarity Act doesn’t spell out what constitutes a majority.

John Munro - 2000

John Munro – 2000

“I’ll let Justin Trudeau continue with his golden oldies tour and bring out Jean Chrétien today and start talking about the quarrels of the past,” Mulcair said earlier Sunday after making a senior health-care announcement in Vancouver.

“We are talking about solving the problems for the future.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Posted in: Canada Tagged: #elxn42, campaign, Canada, election, election2015, fossil, Hamilton, history, Jean Chretien, Justin Trudeau, Liberal, relic, shadow

Tuesday August 25, 2015

August 24, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday August 25, 2015 The Growing Power of the PMO In 2006, Stephen Harper rode into Ottawa with a mandate to clean up the ethical wreckage of the Liberal sponsorship scandal. The Conservative Party leader moved quickly as the prime minister of a minority government. He banned corporate and union donations, and lowered the individual donation limit to $1,000. He toughened federal lobbying rules, created the Parliamentary Budget Office and gave additional powers to the Ethics Commissioner. His goal, he said over and over, was to return accountability to Ottawa. And he did that, to a degree. His reforms have helped bring the federal government up to date on important issues of political financing and budget oversight. Not surprisingly, though, Mr. Harper failed to target the real source of OttawaÕs accountability crisis. As the trial of Mike Duffy has reminded us, the greatest threat to responsible government in Canada is none other than the Prime MinisterÕs Office. Over the past 40 years, the PMO has morphed into a parasite on the body of Parliament that prospers by sucking the democracy out of its host. The court-documented efforts by Nigel Wright, the former chief of staff to Mr. Harper, to control the Senate from inside the PMO are outrageous only because they have been exposed by Mr. DuffyÕs lawyer. The real scandal lies below the surface, where the PMO uses its toxic tentacles to neutralize every part of government that might compete with it for power, so that today we are ruled by an imperial prime minister, unaccountable to anyone or anything. Do not blame Mr. Harper alone for this. The expansion of the PMO began under Pierre Trudeau, and every prime minister since then has been responsible for increasing its malignant grip on Parliament. Brian Mulroney was the first to name a Òchief of staffÓ and elevate that person above the principal secretary who was, up till then, the highest unelect

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 25, 2015

The Growing Power of the PMO

In 2006, Stephen Harper rode into Ottawa with a mandate to clean up the ethical wreckage of the Liberal sponsorship scandal. The Conservative Party leader moved quickly as the prime minister of a minority government. He banned corporate and union donations, and lowered the individual donation limit to $1,000. He toughened federal lobbying rules, created the Parliamentary Budget Office and gave additional powers to the Ethics Commissioner.

His goal, he said over and over, was to return accountability to Ottawa. And he did that, to a degree. His reforms have helped bring the federal government up to date on important issues of political financing and budget oversight.

Not surprisingly, though, Mr. Harper failed to target the real source of Ottawa’s accountability crisis. As the trial of Mike Duffy has reminded us, the greatest threat to responsible government in Canada is none other than the Prime Minister’s Office.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013Over the past 40 years, the PMO has morphed into a parasite on the body of Parliament that prospers by sucking the democracy out of its host. The court-documented efforts by Nigel Wright, the former chief of staff to Mr. Harper, to control the Senate from inside the PMO are outrageous only because they have been exposed by Mr. Duffy’s lawyer. The real scandal lies below the surface, where the PMO uses its toxic tentacles to neutralize every part of government that might compete with it for power, so that today we are ruled by an imperial prime minister, unaccountable to anyone or anything.

Do not blame Mr. Harper alone for this. The expansion of the PMO began under Pierre Trudeau, and every prime minister since then has been responsible for increasing its malignant grip on Parliament. Brian Mulroney was the first to name a “chief of staff” and elevate that person above the principal secretary who was, up till then, the highest unelected authority in the PMO. Jean Chrétien relied on the protective coating of the PMO to shield himself from direct responsibility for the sponsorship scandal, just as Mr. Harper is now doing in the Duffy affair. (Continued: Globe & Mail)

Posted in: Canada Tagged: Brian Mulroney, Canada, crown, Democracy, imperialism, Jean Chretien, John Turner, Kim Campbell, Monarchy, Paul Martin, Pierre Trudeau, PMO, power, Prime Ministers Office, royalty, Stephen Harper
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