generalspeaking

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney  (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

"I think the Chinese government played a significant role in the devastating public health and economic damage that is being experienced by the entire world."
"And I do not think we should just forget this and walk past it. There must be some kind of a reckoning, there must be some accountability." Western countries, including Canada and the United States, must have a reset in their relationship with China — and part of that reset, in my judgment, must be a deliberate effort to onshore production, particularly on critical supplies."                                                                    Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

"[There is a] large body of facts and data [ to prove that Beijing did not obfuscate the damaging effects of the novel coronavirus]."
"If Mr. Premier did not deliberately turn his head away, these facts and evidence are presenting themselves crystal clearly before his eyes. If there is a comparison between what he has done during the outbreak with what Wuhan has, he will not look smarter."
"However, we disdain to bring the details up, because attacking Mr. Premier was never one of our goals."
"You are based in Edmonton not in Ottawa. [Many Americans -- friendly or not to Trump -- have] profitable and unshakable business with China."
Chinese consulate, Calgary

"[The United States should form a partnership to sue China for damages caused by the pandemic]."
"This will allow us to share information and resources and ensure that any remedy sought takes into consideration our legal capabilities and the devastating impact the virus has had on our States."
Letter to Washington from 14 Republican attorneys general

Premier Jason Kenney took the unusual and justified step of speaking before a virtual roundtable hosted by the Washington-based Canadian American Business Council, to voice his outrage over Beijing's failure to properly alert the world community of a viral outbreak in Wuhan. Where the Chinese Communist Party chose instead to silence, threaten and arrest, then force to recant Chinese physicians trying to warn their colleagues and the outside world of the worrying appearance of a strange pneumonia causing respiratory failure and death in a growing number of patients.

Beijing chose to give incorrect and alert-damaging information to the World Health Organization, whose purpose is to warn the international community of the emergence of any new health threats certain to cause pandemics. A failure to advise that resulted in the WHO giving credence to China on the global pandemic status of SARS-CoV-2 which emerged in Wuhan, overwhelming its health-care system, in a frightening emergency that went on to replicate a similar exploding disease and death-count worldwide.

Canada's federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen to downplay Beijing's role in failing to warn the world community which resulted in close to five million infections globally and approximately one-third of a million deaths due to COVID-19. China's abysmal level of transparency is entirely responsible for the prolifterating number of cases besetting an unready world community. One that is adamant that China must be held accountable for its dire failing.

The state of Missouri has taken steps to sue China for compensation, filing a 47-page lawsuit with its attorney general Eric Schmitt stating China had clamped down on information regarding the virus, including the arrest of whistleblowers, playing down the contagiousness of the virus. COVID-19 has killed over 85,000 Americans. And there are many more seriously considering bringing lawsuits against China. Beijing sneered at Australia for its temerity in casting blame for the severity of the epidemic, by telling Australia it is nothing but the gum on China's shoe.

Canada

Confirmed 78,072 +1,232

Recovered 39,228

Deaths 5,842 +105

Worldwide

Confirmed 4.79M +100K

Recovered 1.78M

Deaths 318K +5,340

Australia, the U.S. and all 27 nations comprising the European Union are adamantly demanding an independent investigation as well, in the awareness of the complicity of the World Health Organization in aiding China's suppression of vital COVID information. Canada has pointedly failed to join its Western partners in their determination to see that an independent investigation takes place both of  China's actions and that of the WHO.

"Ottawa can't seem to shake the tendency to flatter ... The facts argue that China was delinquent, that it was not transparent enough. That is not a conspiracy theory", pointed out a former Canadian ambassador to China, David Mulroney. The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau seems determined to bow down to China. Canada's position vis-a-vis China's world bullying is that of a unctuous lickspittle. A situation that serves China well, and has earned Canada the compliment of being described as 'calm' in the greater disorder of a sea of complaints against China.

That Chinese diplomats worldwide are increasingly arrogant and insulting toward the countries they have been dispatched to, blatantly and insultingly representing China's interests is intolerable. An appointed diplomat deploying verbal contempt aimed at an elected Canadian politician at the executive-governing level is unheard of and disgraceful. Such lack of diplomatic restraint and vituperation should qualify these diplomats for a swift exit from their international posts.

A medical staffer writes a note to communicate with a patient he is tending to, in the ICU of the Bassini Hospital, in Cinisello Balsamo, near Milan, Italy, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)