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Today, the Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War sent an open letter to the Office of the Prime Minister encouraging him to rescind his diplomatic boycott and get into the spirit of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. The open letter was sent with the co-sponsorship of a number of other organizations and individuals.
Next Monday, January 31st, the day on which Parliament reconvenes, the Hamilton Coalition to Stop The War will organize an online press conference publicly to launch the open letter and two petitions which also relate to Canada-China relations. Details of the press conference will be made available soon.
The first petition, on the Action Network, is entitled, “Allow Huawei Canada to participate in Canada’s 5G rollout.” This petition to the prime minister and cabinet is to request them to continue to allow the participation of Huawei Canada, its products and services, in the development of Canada’s new 5G network. The petition lists ten good reasons for the cabinet to do so.
The second petition is a parliamentary petition, sponsored by Hamilton Centre NDP MP Matthew Green. It arose from a resolution passed overwhelmingly at the Hamilton and District Labour Council and calls on the government “not only (to) refuse any participation in the AUKUS pact but also to strongly condemn AUKUS as a breach of the UN’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a dangerous escalation of military tensions with the People’s Republic of China and in the Asia-Pacific region.”
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The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Dear Sir,
We, the undersigned, ask you to drop your petty “diplomatic” boycott of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympic Games: this “diplomatic” boycott flouts the Olympic spirit, is based on false reports, and promotes cold war with China.
For more than one thousand years, the ancient Olympics brought Greeks together in a peaceful, sporting, cultural, and social festival, despite inter-city conflicts. An Olympic Truce was declared so all Greeks could travel, participate, and return home safely.
Impressively, on December 2nd, 2021, in a rare consensus vote, the 193-member UN General Assembly reaffirmed the Olympic Truce for the Beijing Games. UNGA President Abdulla Shahid observed: “Nations should use sport as a tool to support dialogue and reconciliation, striving for a peaceful world aligned with the principles and values enshrined in the United Nations Charter.” International Olympic Committee Chair Thomas Bach stated, “We can only accomplish this mission… if the Olympic Games are politically neutral and do not become a tool to achieve political goals.” Clearly, in mimicking Biden’s petty “diplomatic” boycott, you are playing politics and are out of step with this international consensus.
In addition, your “diplomatic” boycott is based upon false charges of human rights abuses in China. Contrary to statements by you and ministers of your government, China’s Uyghur population is growing in number and prosperity. Unlike Canada’s native peoples, Chinese Uyghurs have an Autonomous Republic. Along with 800 million Chinese, Uyghurs were lifted out of poverty during the past five years – an unprecedented accomplishment in world history.
We note that Canada’s history is replete with systemic racism against numerous ethnic, religious, native, and racial minorities and that the continuing discoveries of the bodies of children in unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools renders Canada an unworthy critic of the Chinese government. Simply put, people in glass houses should not throw stones.
Furthermore, we question the sincerity of your government’s concern about Uyghur Muslims in the context of Canada’s role in recent US wars. In mainly-Muslim Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers routinely conducted night-time raids on civilian homes and reportedly turned over hundreds of Afghanis for torture at the hands of the Afghan authorities, which the Government of Canada supported. Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament to avoid this scandal in 2008, but the Canadian public has yet to gain access to some 40,000 documents regarding the torture allegations. In predominantly-Muslim Libya, a Canadian general led NATO’s attack, turning Libya into a failed state. Canada was part of the US regime-change coalition in mainly-Muslim Syria, where a half million were killed and more than thirteen million turned into displaced persons. Concerning the Occupied Territories of Palestine, your government has voted against numerous United Nations’ resolution condemning Israeli violations of the human rights and national sovereignty of the mainly-Muslim Palestinian population there. So, we ask why you are so concerned about Muslims in China? We suggest there must be an ulterior motive.
It appears to us that the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations were and are intent on promoting a cold war with China. And that’s the ulterior motive, we believe, for calling for a “diplomatic” boycott of the Beijing Games. So far, it appears only a tiny handful countries have formally joined with the “anglosphere”- Canada, USA, UK, Australia – in promoting this “diplomatic” boycott. This tiny cabal is out of step with most of the world on many issues but especially on China, with which, since Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”, it appears endlessly to be causing problems and raising military tensions, for example most recently, on Taiwan. But there is also the AUKUS pact, in which the US and UK agreed to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by selling nuclear submarines to Australia and the move by the Five Eyes Intelligence Network to ban Huawei Technologies from the deployment of 5G networks in Canada, the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Canada used to have exemplary friendly relations with China to the point that it became our second-largest trading partner. With your arrest of Meng Wanzhou at the urging of former US President Trump, who promptly announced he intended to use Ms. Meng as a “bargaining chip” in his trade war with China, Canada-China relations took a nosedive. Similarly, Canada used to abide by a One-China Policy. In fact, it was your father, Pierre, who recognized that the People’s Republic of China had sovereignty over all of China, including Taiwan, a move which opened up diplomatic and trade relations with China and created five decades of prosperity for both countries. Now, your government facilitates the opening of Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices in two Canadian cities. How would your government like it if the People’s Republic of China provided office space for Canadian separatist organizations, such as the Independence Party of Alberta, inside of Canada?
The rest of the world looks to China for prosperity through its Belt-and-Road Initiative. Canada should too. Most countries are increasingly focussed on preventing the twin nightmares of nuclear warfare and climate chaos. But the “anglosphere”, to which you stubbornly adhere, Mr. Trudeau, seems intent on recreating a cold war with China, which could, in an instant, turn into a hot war. The ulterior motives behind a new cold war are US global hegemony and profits through an arms race, including Canada’s obscenely-expensive, proposed new fighter jets, warships, and predator drones.
Your “diplomatic” boycott is one more reason that Canadians have been calling for an independent foreign policy. Instead of aping US pettiness, Canadians should applaud the Olympic Truce and celebrate the participation of our athletes in Beijing. The fact that the US government has recently announced it would send forty-six officials to the Beijing Games makes a further mockery of your “diplomatic” boycott, which is actually, in our view, an UNdiplomatic boycott.
We urge you to rescind your “diplomatic” boycott today and send along Canadian officials to Beijing to demonstrate some Olympic spirit and show support for the world’s most high-profile peaceful international competition.
Yours truly,
Ken Stone
on behalf the Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
co-sponsored by:
Cross-Canada Campaign to Free Meng Wanzhou
Canadian Peace Congress
Canada-China Council for Cooperation and Development
Global Peace Alliance, BC Society
Regina Peace Council
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO)
Fire This Time Movement For Social Justice
and these individuals:
Tamara Lorincz
Bruce Katz
Khawla Ibrahim
Mark Hagar
Larry Wasslen
Charles Posa McFadden
Karen Howell McFadden
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