The fact that we are even debating whether or not to immediately end the partnerships is absurd. As we face a new Cold War, it is beyond unacceptable for our country to have partnerships with China that could boost their military strength.
As a nation with an important geopolitical position – vast territory, tremendous access to natural resources, a border with the United States – Canada has certain responsibilities.
Chief among those responsibilities are to ensure our own national defence, and ensure we can contribute to our alliances.
Relying upon the United States to do everything is both disrespectful to them, and disrespectful to ourselves.
Similarly, we also have a responsibility to ensure that we are not strengthening nations that are hostile to ourselves and our allies.
Because of our deep connections with the United States, countries like China see Canada as a possible weak link to exploit, and it’s our responsibility to ensure we don’t allow that to happen.
And yet, the Liberal government continues to ensure that Canada is a weak member of our alliances, and even a liability to our allies.
Consider the fact that the Liberals still refuse to end Canadian university partnerships with China’s military.
It’s absurd that I even had to write that sentence, and it’s absurd that we are even debating it.
There is no logical reason for those partnerships to continue.
And for those who claim that the federal government can’t tell universities what to do, the government has broad power when it comes to national security, and shutting down a university partnership with China’s military is easily justifiable on national security grounds. After all, the Liberal government is funding those partnerships.
But instead of taking action, the Liberals will only say that a ‘process’ is in place.
Watch what happened when Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Michael Chong – who has been doing great work on trying to protect Canada from Communist China – asked the Liberals if they would end the Canada-China military research partnerships:
“The Trudeau gov’t is funding research with Chinese military scientists in areas like photonics & space science – despite the advice of CSIS against this since 2018.
After last week’s spy balloon, I asked the gov’t if they’re going to stop this.
Watch their response.”
https://twitter.com/MichaelChongMP/status/1622958364673347584
To say that was an inadequate response from the government would be a significant understatement.
How can our allies trust our country when we are still so weak on defending our own interests and defending the interests of our allies?
At a time when we are in a new Cold War, Canada cannot afford to be weak or complacent on national security.
If we expect our allies to be there when we get into trouble, we have to uphold our end of the bargain and make sure we are helping to counter Communist China.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
