Beijing's Deep Concern for Human Dignity

"The facts of the crimes committed by the Canadian nationals involved in the cases are clear, and the evidence is solid and sufficient."

"The Chinese judicial authorities have handled the cases in strict accordance with the law, and have fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned."

"China always imposes severe penalties on drug-related crimes and maintains a 'zero tolerance' attitude toward the drug problem."

"[Canada should] respect the rule of law and China's judicial sovereignty [and] stop making irresponsible remarks."

China's Ottawa Embassy 

"Global Affairs Canada [Canadian Foreign Affairs Department] can confirm it is aware that, earlier this year, Canadians were executed in the People's Republic of China."

"Canada strongly condemns China's use of the death penalty, which is irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity."

"Canada repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels."

Foreign Affairs Canada 

The Chinese flag flies outside Beijing’s embassy to Canada in Ottawa. (Photo: Jharnett44 via Wikimedia Commons)  

 

China is distinct in the world for many reasons, and one of its distinctions is its free use of the death penalty for what it considers to be capital offense crimes. Although there are many countries across the globe that continue to use the death penalty -- the United States among them -- China has the distinction of putting more people to death as a crime penalty than all other countries combined. A runner-up in the state-death competition is the Islamic Republic of Iran whose mode of execution includes hanging, crucifixion, stoning and firing squads.

 

China's choice of state execution for those judged to have run afoul of its criminal laws in capital offenses also die by firing squads, although Beijing has latterly introduced lethal injections as well. Once a charge has been laid by the state of anyone having committed a capital offense, it is almost unknown for a court to strike a trial, instead rubber-stamping guilt with the accompanying penalty of execution. With its vast population of over 1.4 billion people, Beijing is not known to be sensitive to any concept as remote to it as 'human rights'.

 

In the instance of the publicly newly-revealed death by state execution of Canadian citizens, neither the Chinese embassy in Canada's capital of Ottawa or Canada's Foreign Affairs department divulged just how many Canadians had been executed, nor identified those executed by publishing their names. An Abbotsford, British Columbia native, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, known to have been sentenced to death by a Chinese court in 2019 on a charge of drug smuggling, however, was not among the executed. 

 

A photo submitted by the RCMP shows a clandestine drug lab where Mounties say a large quantity of fentanyl was discovered in Mission, B.C. in November 2023. (submitted by Mission RCMP)

Those who met their untimely fate may have been dual citizens of Canada and China. China does not recognize or give credence to dual citizenship, and feels no diplomatic sensitivity in ignoring Canadian citizenship alongside Chinese citizenship. Although the Chinese head of mission at the embassy in Ottawa did not clarify whether any of these executed were involved in drug smuggling or trafficking, they did state that Beijing has a "zero tolerance" approach to drug crime.

 

There are, it seems, altogether 100 Canadians currently detained in China. It is interesting to note that while China deals severely with anyone identified and caught being involved in the drug trade, it is from China that the artificial, laboratory-produced opioid Fentanyl arrived in North America to wreak deadly havoc in Canada and the United States. Although on appeal Beijing listed fentanyl making it illegal to transport or sell it abroad, the precursor chemicals associated with fentanyl production still emanate from Chinese labs, where criminal gangs in North America employ 'cooks' to produce lethal fentanyl.

 

Health Canada says it can only take a few grains of fentanyl to kill someone. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

"As in pre­vi­ous years, exe­cu­tion totals do not include the esti­mat­ed thou­sands of exe­cu­tions car­ried out by the world’s lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er, China, where exe­cu­tion data is con­sid­ered a state secret; secre­cy prac­tices and chal­lenges access­ing infor­ma­tion in Afghanistan, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, and Vietnam also cre­at­ed dif­fi­cul­ties in iden­ti­fy­ing min­i­mum totals. This world­wide increase was pri­mar­i­ly dri­ven by a 48% rise in exe­cu­tions in Iran, which account­ed for 74% of exe­cu­tions world­wide. Iran (at least 853 exe­cu­tions), Saudi Arabia (172 exe­cu­tions), Somalia (at least 38 exe­cu­tions), the U.S. (24 exe­cu­tions), and Iraq (at least 16 exe­cu­tions) were the top five coun­tries respon­si­ble for record­ed exe­cu­tions."

Death Penalty Information Center

Israel's Relentless Drive to Destroy Hamas

"It is time for the countries of the world to take seriously our unwavering commitment to bring back all our hostages home and defeat the enemy."

"Nothing will stop us from fighting to free our hostages, who have been held in brutal Hamas captivity for 527 days."

"We will show no mercy against our enemies while our hostages languish in Hamas terror tunnels."

Danny Danon, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations

Israeli troops in southern Gaza. Pic: IDF handout

Extensive strikes have been conducted against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military on Monday, negating a ceasefire that had exacerbated the pain of Israel's hostage families in the terrorists' hollow gestures of complying with the rules of hostage return while mocking the process as a generous gesture on the part of the Palestinian terrorists. The 'ceasefire' that had given Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other such groups the opportunity to recruit, rearm and reaffirm their ironclad intention to continue planning and executing attacks on Israel for which the October 7, 2023 invasion and savagery remains their model.

 

In essence, the 'ceasefire' had ended itself when Israeli intelligence analyzed the intention of Hamas leaders to carry on with their death mission for Israel, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the only fitting response to the situation would be a return to Israel's original goal of wiping out the entirety of the Hamas organization; fighters, leaders, weapons stocks, organizational capability. The essentially vital target, the removal of the Hamas leadership.

 

To that end, it was confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces that "the Hamas prime minister and a senior government figure in the Gaza Strip", Essam al-Dalis was among a number of senior terrorists eliminated in the early stages of the campaign. As is usual for the IDF, a vital warning had been issued Tuesday urging residents of Gaza within specific areas to immediately evacuate, as the Israeli forces' operations intensified. 

Civilians were called  upon by IDF spokesperson Avichay Adrace, to relocate to designated shelters located in western Gaza City and Khan Yunis to avoid becoming casualties of the attacks. Citing local Gaza health officials, the Associated Press reported that over 400 Palestinians had been killed in the overnight airstrikes. No one can actually be assured of the veracity of any such claims made by either Hamas or any of its operating arms. Hamas, in any event, reporting on casualties makes no differentiation between civilians and its terrorist operatives.

 

Pic: IDF handout

"[An Israeli official] claimed that in recent days during the ceasefire Hamas has been preparing to carry out new attacks against Israel and has taken steps to rearm."

"The official said the IDF kept the operational plan top secret and within a relatively small circle in order to surprise Hamas."

Axios Report

 

"[The IDF is] attacking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip in order to achieve the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased."

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office statement

The attack coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Somewhat similar to Egypt and Syria attacking Israel in 1973 on Yom Kippur, the Judaic holy Day of Atonement. There is an interpretation that this could signal a full resumption of the war, incited by Hamas when terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, thousands of terrorists primed to enact a scene straight out of Hell, complete with mass rape, mutilation, torching of family homes with the residents huddled for safety in their 'safe rooms', where the mostly civilian population of southern Israel's farming kibbutzim were targeted for annihilation.

 

Hamas terrorists stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas's plans included the hostage-taking of families, the elderly, infants, teens, women, foreign farm workers and Israeli soldiers. Even the dead were considered useful pawns as hostages, bundled off with the terrified living hostages to the extensive tunnel systems of Gaza, to be confined in dark, dank underground cells without natural light, breathing foetid air, and experiencing a lack of adequate food and water and medical supplies. The remaining two dozen hostages believed to still be alive, remain in terrorist hands.

 

"We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas", mourned the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. And one can only commiserate with their anguish, hoping against hope that their loved ones will somehow be returned to them. Hamas enjoys its sadistic cat-and-mouse games with vulnerable and helpless captives.

 

While the United States and Israel have been stepping up attacks across the region this week, the retaliatory campaign against Hamas is being carried out with a view to bringing Israel's goal of eradicating the terrorist group entirely, closer to accomplishment as an end-game goal. In concert with the U.S. launching strikes against Yemen's Houthis spurred on by Iran, Israel has targeted Iran's terrorist proxies in Lebanon and Syria.

 

Israeli soldiers patrol a street in northern Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli military launched a new ground offensive in Gaza, a day after Israel 'broke a ceasefire' with a punishing series of airstrikes. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

"[U.S. President Donald Trump] has made it clear: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America will see a price to pay."

"All hell will break loose."

"[All of] the terrorists in the Middle East [should take Trump] very seriously when he says he is not afraid to stand for law-abiding people ... and our friend and ally Israel."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

Protecting Canada's Medical Supplies from Punishing Tariffs

"The announced tariffs on Canadian exports, along with retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada on the U.S., will likely bring significant risks to Ontario's health care system, including the disruption of access to vital equipment and supplies."

"The OHA [Ontario Hospital Association] is very concerned about the impact of this trade war on the delivery of care and is engaging with the federal and provincial governments and other stakeholders to fully understand and minimize the impact on hospitals."

"[Much is still unknown in the] evolving [political climate]."

Melissa Prokopy, vice-president, policy and advocacy, Ontario Hospital Association 

"We do stand with the government, you know, that U.S. tariffs cannot go unanswered. However, health care must be protected."

"We are looking for exemption of health-care products from any retaliatory tariffs."

"This will be very important to protect supply chain stability and prevent any kind of cost escalations." 

Christine Donaldson, chief executive, Health PRO Canada

In a global supply system, making pharmaceuticals and medical devices often involves multiple countries, so it might be difficult to pinpoint all the specific components that come through the U.S. that might be subject to counter-tariffs. Photo by Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press files

Federal and provincial governments in Canada are being urged by health associations to make certain that patients in Canada will not become caught in the crossfire of the trade war that the new Trump administration in the U.S. has imposed upon Canada. HealthPRO Canada, a company which purchases medications, supplies and equipment for over 2,000 hospitals, health-care facilities and long-term care homes across the country announced it is seeking clarity on potential future counter-tariffs. 

The company's chief executive made a comparison to the automotive industry, with the manufacturing process for many health-care supplies where raw materials and components often cross borders "several times before they reach their finished production". In other words, a fully integrated system of production shared by the U.S. and Canada. The imposition of tariffs entirely disrupts the free flow of materials and finished products.

While it is not yet clear which products in particular could potentially be affected by future counter-tariffs, some essential medications, medical devices and diagnostic imaging equipment -- including MRI and CT scanners, surgical tools and ventilators -- frequently are manufactured in the United States. 

Hospitals could also be affected through counter-tariffs on food, mattresses and other non-medical goods in the uncertainty brought about by the ongoing trade war, when U.S. President Donald Trump decided that he was dissatisfied with the existing U.S.-Canada-Mexico free trade agreement that he signed on to during his first presidential term, expressing his satisfaction at the time that negotiators representing the three North American countries had hammered out a good free trade agreement.

 

A treatment room is pictured at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Alta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

 

The types of medical devices most affected by tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada include:

1. Medical Imaging Equipment: Devices such as MRI machines, CT scanners, and X-ray machines are heavily impacted due to their reliance on imported components.
2. Surgical Instruments: Many surgical tools and instruments are imported, and tariffs can significantly increase their costs.
3. Diagnostic Equipment: Devices used for diagnostics, including blood analyzers and other laboratory equipment, are also affected.
4. Electronic Medical Devices: This category includes devices like pacemakers, defibrillators, and other electronic health monitoring equipment.
5. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Items such as gloves, masks, and gowns, which are crucial for healthcare workers, face increased costs due to tariffs.

"Who Knows What They are Going to Demand From Us?"

"The Long-Range Precision Strike [Land] project will significantly enhance Canada's defence capabilities, both domestically and abroad."

"This project is progressing well and we are expecting to share additional details in the coming months."

"[Procurement decisions in Canada are based on national security priorities; the federal government is] closely monitoring the trade situation in the U.S., and assessing potential impacts to existing projects."

Department of National Defence spokesperson Kened Sadiku

Canada's military leadership is pushing for a sole source deal for the U.S.-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or HIMARS. Photo by Lance Cpl. Nicholas Guevara U. /24TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT

 

Remarkably, if not damningly, military leadership in Canada seems content to push forward with another sole source agreement for American military equipment in the face of President Donald Trump's relentless drive to destroy any semblance of historical friendliness between Canada and the U.S., vowing to move on with his punishing trade tariffs and continuing his harassment threatening Canadian sovereignty. Unsurprisingly, Canadians are acutely disinterested in becoming their neighbour's 51st state, and nor are they impressed that their erstwhile friendly neighbour has set out to drain Canada's economy through hostile actions. 

In the face of this disruptive tension, the Canadian Armed Forces is leading a move to have the Liberal government purchase the American-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). HIMARS has been in use in combat by the Ukraine military against Russian forces. Once President Trump entered office, he took steps to reduce the weapon system's effectiveness through limiting the flow of data and intelligence required for its critical operations. Effectively leaving the Ukrainian military high and dry with a high-powered system whose software effectiveness and intelligence-sharing has been deliberately tampered with.

 

The Canadian Forces' senior leadership plan is for the purchase of a number of HIMARS built by Lockheed Martin through a sole source deal handled through a foreign Military Sale where Canada would receive the equipment from the U.S. government directly. Department of National Defence spokesperson Kened Sadiku, asked why a HIMARS purchase would even be considered under current hostile circumstances between Canada and the U.S. where the latter has imposed staggering tariffs and sovereignty threats on the former, delivered a verbal shrug in response.

 

Canada’s military leadership is pushing for a sole source deal for the U.S.-built High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or HIMARS. Photo by Sgt. Adam L. Mathis U.S. Depar /U.S. ARMY

The equipment acquisition could come to about $5 billion with the project involving purchasing launchers, fire control software, munitions and spare parts. The proposed acquisition along with other recent Canadian defence purchases has caused consternation among Canadian industry officials and military analysts. According to one official in the defence industry, the Canadian military leadership is "tone deaf" to the threat the Americans under this new administration poses to the country. 

Assuming a scenario where the U.S. controls most of the technology on its equipment, the Canadian Forces faces a dilemma. With full control over software and hardware upgrades on Canada's $19-billon fleet of F-35 fighter jets on order, the aircraft being built by Lockheed Martin in the U.S. has prompted defence industry officials to warn that with the U.S. controlling many of the key systems on board Canada's new warships, as with the aircraft, the U.S. has the potential to hold Canada hostage over future upgrades or spare parts.

 

Those legitimate concerns aside, pressure from the U.S. has led the Liberal government and Canada's military to double down on ordering American-supplied equipment. 2023 saw close to $30 billion spent in new military systems, most of which were from U.S. firms exclusively, including an $8 billion sole-source deal with Boeing for new surveillance aircraft. That, despite that Liberal cabinet ministers had previously claimed Boeing was not an trustful industrial partner.  

In the hope that the deals could serve to placate American politicians who had raised concerns that Canada was failing to spend enough on defence, this was the chosen route, which in the final analysis did nothing to alter the criticism. The push by the Canadian Forces to acquire American has, in addition, provided little benefit for domestic firms. Much of the sentiment behind these self-defeating procurement efforts can be ascribed to the closeness of the Canadian military leadership to their American counterparts plus its reluctance to shift focus from America's protective shield.

"This is what happens when you exclude Canadian companies: You find yourself potentially being held hostage." 

"We don’t control the [combat management] system; the Americans do."
"Who knows what they are going to demand from us?"

Alan Williams, former procurement chief, Department of National Defence

An artist's rendering of the Canadian Surface Combatant. Photo by Government of Canada /HANDOUT

 

Oh Canada...Where Has Thou Gone?

"It has been more than two days that the supply of electricity to Gaza has been shut off. It must resume -- essentials including food, electricity, and medical supplies should never be used as political tools."

"Canada must work with our allies to stand up for international law to promote sustainable peace and security in the Middle East and to support full access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian families."

"As this work continues, both parties must work toward the return of all hostages and the completion of the ceasefire agreement."

Canada's new Prime Minister former financier Mark Carney

Mark Carney is sworn in as Prime Minister during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday, March 14, 2025.  Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press—AP

 

"For the record, international law is very clear on this point [whether Israel, at war with Hamas, has an international obligation to supply Gaza with humanitarian aid]: Israel is not obligated to provide aid that will be used by an enemy in a time of war, and anyone who argues differently is either illiterate or willfully ignorant."

Law professor Mark Goldfeder, CEO, National Jewish Advocacy Center

It has yet to be seen whether the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Party of Canada has the wherewithal to govern the country as its latest -- and perhaps shortest-ruling PM ever -- iteration of the Trudeau government, having never before been elected to a political post to serve a public office. It hasn't taken long in his mandate, however, to realize that in the Liberal Party's attitude toward the State of Israel, Canada has veered from supportive and collegial, to a critic of a country that has suffered a sharp, violent blow of terrorism's savagery wreaked on its population by Palestinian Hamas.

 

The afterthought in Mr. Carney's condemnation of Israel withholding humanitarian aid from Gaza, of the plight of the Israeli hostages held for over a year and a half in monstrously subhuman conditions tacked on to indicate 'fairness' in his approach, somehow lacks both humanity and credibility. That previous humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip has notoriously been proven to be purloined under violent duress by Hamas operatives and withheld from the Gazan civilian population, is of no moment to Mr. Carney; damning Israel is the point of his criticism.

 

A boy sits as Palestinians gather to receive aid provided by UNRWA including food supplies, after Israel says it has ceased entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, outside a distribution center, at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, March 2, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)

No other country but Israel is expected to go out of its way to essentially provide comfort and aid to an enemy that has boasted its pride in the sadistic slaughter, rape and destruction it imposed on Israeli farming villages, most of which had employed Palestinian workers while commiserating with their privation; their empathy repaid by many of those same workers streaming into southern Israel alongside Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PLFP terrorists to take part on the brutality that demolished the calm and trust of a ceasefire on October 7, 2023. That Hamas threatens there will be many more October 7s appears irrelevant to Mr. Carney.

 

The very Hamas authority that most Gazans fully supported in this hideous inhumanity that made hostages of infants, young families and the elderly. In the midst of the first few days of taking up duties as an incoming government with all the files requiring attention relating to a Canada under duress of a neighbour's malign overtures of annexation, a trade war, the country's internal problems of immigration,  housing, expanding crime rates, a faltering health system, the incoming Prime Minister turned his attention to tut-tutting a member-democracy embroiled in a conflict from violent Islamists on its northern and southern borders.

 

A woman holds a cut-out picture of hostages Shiri Bibas, 32, with Kfir Bibas, 9 months old, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and then killed in Gaza, on the day of their funeral procession, at a public square dedicated to hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel February 26, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem

The ruling government of Justin Trudeau's preference of ignoring a year-and-half of roisterous, threatening harassment of Canadian Jews by ostensible supporters of the 'Palestinian cause', where hordes of keffiyeh-clad antisemites marched through Jewish neighbourhoods, where Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalized, Jewish-Canadians told to 'go back to Poland', the crowds shouting 'global Intifada', and 'From the river to the Sea', with their malicious messages of destruction, have never been called to account for hate-mongering disruption of the public peace.

 

Toronto Police attend Pro-Palestinian demonstration at Yonge and Dundas Sts. in Toronto on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. Photo by Caryma Sa’d

 

That the incoming government is satisfied to allow the situation in Canada dividing its population through the auspices of foreign manipulation, as long as the victims are only Jewish, choosing to overlook the fact that everyone is affected when one distinct portion of the population is under constant threat. When the Jewish demographic of Canada suffers the alarm and fear of synagogues being defaced and fire-bombed, Jewish parochial schools being shot at, Jewish businesses boycotted, the entire country is involved, never made more obvious than when large groups of Muslims gather at public intersections, effectively closing them down while engaging in group prayer sessions on public roadways, bridges and parks.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at Montreal's Place-des-Arts on Saturday afternoon to take part in an "International Day of Action." (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

The moral ambivalence of stating repugnance for antisemitism in the public sphere and pledging to address the issue through means not yet to see the light of day, while in the same breath deploring 'Islamophobia' as a public menace is a step too far toward the sophistry of performative art aligned with concerns over the potential of offending an offensive group to the point of risking their votes. The die has been cast, Jews in Canada, in a state of disbelief that this can be happening, that their loyalty to the country of their birth is now in a state of flux forced on them by uncaring governments and an influx of immigrants and refugees with an infused agenda of Jew-hate, now debate whether their children's future is safe in Canada.  

Israeli hostages, from left, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert display Hamas-issued certificates while they stand with Hamas militants on a stage in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, before being handed over to the Red Cross on Saturday. (Abdel Kareem Hana/The Associated Press)