Rot At The Pinnacle

"I was told I could come back into the Canadian Forces as a captain, maybe a major. When I was told that, I felt the contributions I had made were of no value. I was completely disgusted by an organization I once loved."

"He [Chief of the Defence Staff] excoriates the mid-level leadership of the forces for leaving but does nothing to hold general officers to account."

"This says a lot about the current state of affairs."

Lt.Col. Mark Popov, retired Canadian Forces officer

 

"I acknowledge the personal toll events toward the end of his career at RMC [Royal Military College] have likely had on LCol(ret'd) Popov and thank him for his contributions to the Canadian Armed Forces through his many years of service."

"I acknowledge that he was not afforded procedural fairness in all circumstances."

"The CAF took a series of restorative steps to address the issues raised in that grievance [Lt.Col Popov's grievance brought against the military command when he was removed from his command position at the RMC]." 

General Wayne Eyre, Chief of Defence Staff

The official flag for the Royal Military College. The flag looks as disgracefully ragged as the RMC reputation ...  Photo by IAN MACALPINE /Postmedia

For years the scandalous behaviour of top echelon Canadian military elites in all branches of the service has raised an undercurrent of outrage among victims of sexual harassment and assault in the military, both women and men. Official enquiries were launched, resulting reports rife with recommendations, lauded for a formula that would bring the Forces out of the dark ages. And then the top brass simply shelved such reports.

But not without assuring Parliament, Canadian troops and the public at large, that work was underway to change the culture of sexual harassment, and to hold perpetrators fully responsible, meting out justifiable punishment in consequence of their actions. That victims of sexual abuse would be heard and their testimony used to launch related investigations. At the time of the latest revelations, the-then retiring Chief of Defence Staff was himself accused of sexually abusing an officer under his command.

And then his replacement too, before he had adequately warmed the seat of CDC, was also the subject of an accusation, and he stepped away from the position. A series of revelations unfolded, one after another, with high-echelon military officers shrouded in accusations, relieved of duty temporarily as the military investigated itself, and leaving the impression that no one in high office in the Canadian military honoured an equitable, respectful code of conduct.

Before all this unfolded, in 2015, one conscientious officer charged with the directorship of cadets at RMC acted in good faith in an effort to hold military cadets accountable for conduct unbecoming decency. Officer cadets in July of 2015 disgraced themselves by harassing a group of 17-year-old female sea cadets visiting Royal Military College. These future leaders of the Canadian military saw fit to hang out of windows shouting at the girls, threatening rape, sodomy and forcing the minors to perform oral sex.

 

Officers present at the time attempted to intervene only to be told to "f---off". When Lt.Col. Popov got wind of what had occurred he rushed over to the scene ordering the officer cadets to their barracks. Then he addressed them with scathing remarks on their conduct, reading back to them the documented sexual provocations and threats they were responsible for. Adding some of his own curses at them for good measure in an effort to have them acknowledge their behaviour. Not one among the several hundred cadets expressed regret.

 

Some of these future military leaders were the sons of current Generals and they lost no time complaining to their fathers of the humiliating treatment they had been subjected to. As senior officers at National Defence Headquarters damned Lt.Col. Popov, who had served for 27 years, he soon found himself ostracized. Then-RMC commandant Brig.Gen.Sean Friday removed his subordinate from his command, focusing on his use of profanity when addressing the cadets.

"During my time as Commandant of RMC, we did our utmost to ensure that our future CAF leaders could thrive in a healthy and safe learning environment. I worked with my team to disseminate a comprehensive 'RMC Operation Order — OP HONOUR' that contained specific and detailed orders directing all staff, faculty and students to act with Character, Courage and Compassion in responding to and eradicating all forms of sexual harassment and misconduct.” 

“This order contained a newly developed [over the first three months of my time as Commandant], detailed multi-year Action Plan for providing a safe, healthy and harassment-free environment for students, staff and faculty and contributing to CAF efforts to achieve permanent improvement in this regard."

Brig.-Gen. Friday, then-commandant, Royal Military College

By 2018 his position had become untenable; his career track was broken, he had no support among the generals, and he was diagnosed with PTSD, linked to the toxic environment he was exposed to. Three years previously, when he had been removed from his command, he had filed a grievance, but it took four  years for his complaint to be addressed, and that happened a year after Lt.Col. Popov's withdrawal from the military. He was forced by mental stress to retire prematurely, without so much as an apology from the department.

The-then Chief of Staff had finally responded: "These breaches are certainly regrettable" .. the career-ending actions of superior officers. The decision to remove Lt.Col. Popov from command was deemed "null and void". The disciplinary action placed on record by the-then commandant against Lt.Col. Popov was ordered removed. $25,000 was made available by the military to Lt.Col. Popov to pay for the legal bill he had incurred defending himself.

As for his PTSD, he was offered referrals to website links where he might receive information how to deal with his ailment. He was also given the offer of re-enlisting if he accepted a demotion and as long as  his medical condition improved. In the aftermath of the situation being reported in the news, soldiers anonymously praised Lt.Col. Popov's officer-rank abilities, judging his treatment as yet another example of failed leadership at the elite levels of the Canadian Forces. 

In particular, it was noted that to protect a group of entitled officer cadets, a combat veteran had been sacrificed.

“The lack of action and the fact the senior leadership looked the other way sends a message to the perpetrators that they have a free hand to do what they want."

“I tried to do something about it, but the chain of command didn’t have my back."

"These individuals are now officers in the Canadian Forces. The predators, the creeps, they are the ones who won."

"You have a situation where the leadership talks about being serious in dealing with sexual misconduct and issues statements like that. But their actions never support that talk. It is a failure of leadership." 

Lt.Col. (retired) Mark Popov

A graduating class of officer cadets stand in the square at the Royal Military College of Canada during a graduating ceremony in Kingston, Ont., Friday, May 20, 2016. (Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press)

t

To Boycott Or Not, That Is The question ... No Question

"We're calling on the Trudeau government to work with democratic allies to diplomatically boycott the Games."

"We think at this juncture, that's the most effective way to signal to the Beijing leadership that their bellicose behaviour and violations of international law cannot be allowed to stand."

"Too often Canada has been late in joining other democracies in putting in place multilateral action."

Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Michael Chong, Ottawa

 

"If it were up to me, it would be cause enough [to drive the Liberal caucus to implement a boycott]."

"I don't know how any self-respecting country carries on a relationship with the government of Beijing, where they kidnap your citizens and treat your prime minister like dirt."

Liberal MP John McKay

 

"We will see non-governmental organizations speaking out more intensively in the coming months, increasing the pressure on national governments."

"In that case, the Olympics would certainly be damaged, and the Chinese government would not achieve what it actually hoped to gain from these Games: a positive presentation and thus, above all, stronger support of the country."

Jürgen Mittag, sports policy expert, German Sports University, Cologne

Countries are mulling a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics

There are nations of the world seriously considering implementing an official diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games. Canada is not yet one of them, but a growing number of Members of Parliament are becoming restive over the matter with the approach of the Olympic date. A boycott of this nature could see federal dignitaries declining attendance at any portion of the Games. Alternately, they could boycott the opening and closing ceremonies. In this manner governments would be addressing the Chinese Communist Party directly, expressing their censure.

At the same time the International Olympics Committee which has been unmoved by entreaties to move the Games elsewhere, satisfied with their having granted China yet another opportunity to showcase itself to the world at large as it did with the Summer Olympics previously, looks on impassively. Its self-aggrandizement matches that of China's; their business association sidesteps the messy pile of ordure reflecting China's human rights abuses, its threats toward Taiwan and Hong Kong, its work-enslavement of its Uyghur minority and oppression of Tibetans.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons in Britain declared there would be no tickets booked for ministers to attend the Winter Games. Expectations are that the United States will announce a diplomatic boycott of the Games when they open with great fanfare on February fourth. Australia too is seriously considering a boycott of the games being  held in the country that has punished it relentlessly through trade strictures for its audacity in questioning China's human rights abuses and the origin of COVID.

 Beijing Winter Olympics protest in Sydney, Australia

As for Canada, one might anticipate that the illegal three-year imprisonment of two Canadians on spurious charges of espionage to punish Canada for having detained Huawei's CFO on a US extradition request, might spur the government of Justin Trudeau to join his closest collegial democracies in expressing their disapproval of China's threats to world stability, interfering with other nations' internal affairs, engaging in cyber-espionage, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of minority Chinese Muslims for 're-education' purposes.

And then concerns emerged in the sports community over the well-being and whereabouts of a Chinese sports star, tennis player Peng Shuai, after she publicly accused a former elite-level CCP official on social media of having subjected her to years of sexual assaults. "Time is of the essence", If Canada fails to act and should Beijing decide to pre-empt any possible embarrassing boycott by the international community by itself cancelling opening ceremonies, there could be no effective boycott.

Last February the House of Commons unanimously passed an all-party motion recognizing China's human rights violations, inclusive of mass internment and allegations of torture imposed on Uyghurs, likening it to a genocide. Despite the show of universal Parliamentary support for the motion Liberal Cabinet ministers led by the prime minister abstained from voting, unwilling or fearful to commit themselves; in line with the Liberals' penchant for walking softly with Beijing.

Also in February, thirteen Members of Parliament from all parties signed a letter with their demand to the International Olympics Committee that the Winter Olympics be moved elsewhere. China has since sanctioned outspoken Canadian Members of Parliament for their objectionable views on human rights in China. The Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Michael Chong was one of those. 

There has been another number of bills with proposals regarding the situation in Xinjiang. Conservative Senator Leo Housakos has proposed a bill in the House of Commons with the purpose of banning imports into Canada from the Xinjiang (East Turkestan) region targeting concerns related to forced labour by Uyghurs, producing products for international export.

During a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office, U.S. President Joe Biden said a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games was 'something we are considering.' (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

Canada, "Woke" Central

"We will hire the most qualified people based upon their skills and mutual interests. I've had two people say that was the kiss of death. I thought I was trying to be nice saying that if you were interested and able I'd hire you and that's all that mattered. I don't care about the colour of your skin. I'm interested in hiring someone who wants to work on the project and is good at it."

"I believe this is an important stand to make. I will not be silenced any more."

"I think what's happened is the woke and the social justice warriors have made a moralistic argument the way the religious right used to make moralistic arguments. And now people are afraid to challenge them. But I think it's okay to say I believe that equality is a morally valid position. I believe that meritocracy is a morally valid position."

"People do different things. They have different abilities. They have different interests. To me, the whole point is to treat people as individuals, so that's what I do in my life. My way of dealing with racism, or sexism, or any other 'ism' is to treat people as individuals.

"[As scientists] we don't believe in EDI [equality, diversity, inclusion]. We believe in merit, fairness and equality. You should be fair in your procedures and treat people as equals."

Patanjali Kambhampati, professor of chemistry, McGill University, Montreal

Patanjali Kambhampati, a scientist at Montreal's McGill University turned down twice for government grants related to inclusive, equity and diversity provision 'hoops;. John Kenney, National Post

 

As an award winning Canadian scientist Professor Kambhampati has decided to speak out after his request for funding of two projects a year apart were refused one after another, two years running. As a man of great integrity and an expert in his field of scientific research accustomed in the past to receiving federal government research grants, he was being punished for his lack of commitment to "diversity"; doublespeak for giving breaks to unqualified people simply on the basis of their colour or ethnicity.

It doesn't seem to matter to the funding authorities who decided to set his requests aside as not worth evaluating when he emphasized that it was expertise as a qualification that moved him to make his hiring choices, not the colour of an applicant's skin. As himself a man of colour, born in India, living in a 'white' society with ample experiences of his own in the past as a recipient of overt racist discrimination. It is the scientist in him, not the man of Indian origins who responded to pointed questions on his funding application that displeased the funding arbiters.

He committed himself to hiring on merit, nothing more, nothing less. Merit as in scientific qualifications, not the merit based on diversity and considerations of 'inclusiveness'. When his first research funding request was turned down on patently obvious rejection linked to the critical hiring questions, he put it down to new criteria he had no interest in and set it aside. When it happened for a second time, he decided to make it a public issue.

His field of scientific expertise explores super-fast laser science at its cutting edge, a field spanning every issue from telecom to medicine. He applied for a $450,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [NSERC]. NSERC responded that "the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion considerations in the application were deemed insufficient", and they rejected his application. His previous application went to the federally funded National Frontiers in Research Fund a year earlier "to support world-leading interdisciplinary, international, high-risk, high-reward, transformative and rapid-response Canadian research"; turned down on similar grounds.

 

This is the same government that refuses to give summer-student employment grants to any employee-applicant that refuses to sign a commitment to never support groups or are themselves involved in denying abortion rights to women. The result of which was that critical hiring in many areas of social services for summer student jobs for the past several years stumbled and failed when church groups, for example, could not affirm the demand.

It was at the first-stage bureaucratic level that both Professor Kambhampati's applications were stalled. Neither proceeded to the next step where other scientists would review the proposals for their scientific merit and immediacy. Then it came to light that at roughly the same time another arm of government, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, approved a grant to Dr.Lana Ray, professor at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, of $1.2 million to study cancer prevention with the use of traditional Indigenous healing practices. 

 

Professor Ray commented when the award was announced: "We need to stop framing prevalent risk factors of cancer as such and start thinking about them as symptoms of colonialism."

Professor Kambhampati took up his position in Montreal in 2003 at McGill. Born in India, the now-50-year-old had lived in the United States since age four, working in Minnesota, Texas and California before taking up his Canadian professorship. "In childhood I used to get constant beatings and name calling. Two years ago, I had eight police officers break into my house because I was sitting on my porch while brown. That happened on Canada Day", he said in an interview.

He treats everyone equally and fairly, led by his own experiences. He now believes that woke ideology prevalent on campus has leached into government, creating two major problems: self-censorship and a resistance to asking meaningful questions. "There's a lot of self-censoring. And certainly you see it among young people in the university. So young people in the university self-censor a lot. Now they are afraid to talk. That's no way to advance our understanding of the world."

As a child, he said, his mentors were "old, white World War II vets" who taught him all about radio-controlled airplanes. "And that's what led me to build lasers 30 years later". As a mentor now, the Professor explained he has been of assistance to both men and women of different cultures and religions. "I've mentored minorities, I've mentored women. I myself am a Third World minority. And I have mentored people who have catastrophic illnesses. And I have mentored people who are LGBTQ, and not for any reason other than to treat people as equal."

Woke ideology, in his experience, has accelerated in the last several years. "And now it's the prevailing culture. It's 90 percent of the normal people against 10 percent of the vocal minority that has shamed everyone into self-censorship", he said. 

 

"As a scientist our job is to think about how nature works, ask questions, and find answers without prejudice. We cannot do that anymore. We cannot ask how humans work, and how science and nature work, because the woke are interfering with us and saying, 'You can't ask those questions. You're a racist. You're a sexist. You're a homophobe. You're a colonialist. You're a something'. There's some way in which the woke are trying to get people [so they're' no longer asking meaningful questions]."

"I will ... say very clearly that our security forces are mobilized day and night. Maximum mobilization [of French forces with reservists and drones will be watching the coast]."

"But above all, we need to seriously strengthen cooperation -- with Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and the European Commission."

French President Emmanuel Macron

 

"Yesterday is sad and it is scary [the drowning of 31 migrants attempting to cross the Channel in an overloaded dinghy that deflated], but we have to go by boat, there is no other way."

"Maybe it's dangerous, maybe we die, but maybe it will be safe. We have to try our chance. It's a risk, we already know it is a risk."

Manzar, 28-year-old Kurd from Iran

Fire trucks arrive at Calais harbour Wednesday after at least 31 migrants died in the sinking of their boat off the coast of Calais.

 

When questioned why they would risk their lives on such a dangerous venture, some of the young men opting to leave Kurdistan (Iraq) in hopes of reaching the United Kingdom, speak of their disappointment of their country of origin. The large unemployment figures, the lack of opportunity, the corruption at high level, blaming prominent clans for their role in leading the autonomous region, the inequities and the misery they face in a geography rich with natural resources.

Their anger at their leaders and their determination to seek out opportunities for their futures elsewhere made them ripe for exploitation as human victims to ideological disparities and the ire felt by the president of Belarus at the condemnation heaped upon him, along with sanctions for the role he played in violating the voting and human rights of his population many of whom took to the streets in protest against a sham election returning him to power.

 

Mass protests over the discredited election led to a government crackdown, with people sent to prison or exiled   Getty Images

 

Belarusian President Lukashenko promised those anxious to cross into Europe that if they travelled to Minsk, a way could be found. That way was  to bus them in their hundreds to the border between Belarus and Poland, where they were encouraged to cut through the wire fencing and make their way through. The migrants made it clear their destination was not Poland, but the United Kingdom. Not just anywhere in Europe would do; the UK was their choice.

What resulted was a humanitarian tragedy, as all such movements of mass migration end up, with their destination country closing its borders to the masses of humanity camping out beyond their borders hoping for a miracle to transpire, that they would be welcomed, housed, fed, found employment and prosper, leaving their pasts of yearning for such opportunities behind in a fantasy reality that achieved all they had dreamed of.

The scene shifts from that catastrophe with its loss of lives and hopes and collapsed dreams, to the English Channel where for years, migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere gather with the determination to puncture Europe's defences and gain entry to the opportunities they are convinced awaits their arrival. The same spirit of hope and defiance that people from failed Central American states, Africans and Haitians bring with them when they gather at the border between Mexico and the United States.

France has pledged once again to increase its surveillance of its northern shores to ensure that migrants fail in their attempts to cross the Channel to Britain, their preferred destination. The migrants are unimpressed. Huddling in their makeshift camps they vow that no measure of security to keep them from realizing their aspirations will defeat them. And nor would fear of the venture before them, crossing a waterway full of commercial traffic nor weathering conditions at sea in small inflatable dinghies.

These are watercraft meant to carry no more than ten people, and double and  triple that number are ushered into the boats at a time by unscrupulous people smugglers doing their brisk business with no inconvenient thoughts of placing people in dire danger disturbing the more important thoughts of their extortionate fees. Desperate people leaving behind poverty and war in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the world of Islamic social incompetence, corruption and violence view the potential dangers of a sea crossing as nothing compared to the miseries of life they have endured.

When the 31 men, women and children drowned in their failed crossing, relations between France and Britain, already strained, took a deeper dive of anger and resentment; no one likes to take credit for the deaths of vulnerable people fleeing misery and finding death. Prime Minister Johnson feels France to be at fault, while President Macron understands the responsibility for the situation to be entirely Britain's. Finally it seems to have occurred to them that cooperation might achieve more.

Britain has set out five steps for the two countries to embark upon in an effort to ensure there are no further migrant deaths. 

• Joint patrols to prevent more boats from leaving French beaches;
• The use of sensors and radar;
• Immediate work on a returns agreement with France;
• A similar deal with the European Union.

Having left the EU in Brexit, Britain was no longer part of the bloc's system of returning migrants to the first member-state that was entered. 

"My thoughts and sympathies are, first of all with the victims and their families, and it's an appalling thing that they have suffered."

"But I also want to say that this disaster underscores how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in this way. And it also shows how vital it is that we now step up our efforts to break the business model of the gangsters who are sending people to sea in this way, and that's why it's so important that we accelerate if we possibly can all the measures contained in our borders ... so that we distinguish between people who come here legally, and people who come here illegally."

"[Authorities would] leave no stone unturned to the business proposition of the human traffickers and the gangsters ... who are literally getting away with murder."

"[It was time for Britain, France and Europe to] step up [and work together]." 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A boat from a French volunteer sea rescue organization, Societe Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, arrives Wednesday at Calais harbour carrying the bodies of migrants.

Black And Dead : Vigilantism Lives

"[The three men had] no badge, no uniform, no authority [and were] just some strange guys in a white pickup truck."

"You can't make a citizen's arrest because someone's running down the street and you have no idea what they did wrong."

"Standard stuff: malign the victim, it's the victim's fault. You can't claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor. Who started this? It wasn't Ahmaud Arbery."

“I was hopeful based on the evidence that we presented in the case that we put forth that the jury would see the truth of what actually took place and bring justice for the Arbery family. After we picked the jury, we looked at them and realized that we had very, very smart, very intelligent, honest jurors who were going to do their job which is to seek the truth."

"And so, we felt that putting up our case, it doesn't matter whether they were black or white, that putting up our case that this jury would hear the truth, they would see the evidence and that they would do the right thing and come back with the correct verdict which we felt they did today."

Cobb County Lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski 

Arbery's case put a spotlight on racial injustice against African Americans

"Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers will be held accountable, but a historic civil rights mobilization was necessary for the killers to face prosecution at all. There was nearly impunity for this murder, and further investigation is necessary to determine how and why officials initially refused to pursue the case."

"The circumstances of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and the struggle required to secure a prosecution demonstrate profoundly the urgency of reforms to make equal justice real in America.”

Sen. Jon Ossoff, of Georgia

He was 25 years old, a young Black man who enjoyed jogging. For whatever reason on February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery happened to be in a white neighbourhood, jogging in the suburban community of Satilla Shores, in Brunswick, Georgia. As it happened on that night, 65-year-old Gregory McMichael watched the black man running down their street. His son Travis, 35, joined his father as he made a 911 emergency call to inform an operator "there's a Black male running down the street". 

 

An untoward episode of black-and-white that propelled the two men and their neighbour, William Bryan, 52, into action.

 

Father and son reached for shotguns. This was no jogger, they convinced one another, this was someone who had invaded their neighbourhood, committed a crime and was now running away. They got into their pickup truck and sped after the jogger. The chase went on for an estimated five minutes through looping streets. The victim, Ahmaud Arbery, was not available this week to testify how terrified he was at being followed by three white men trying to corner him in the darkening streets of an unfamiliar neighbourhood.

But the jury at the three men's trial, viewing a graphic cellphone video that Bryan McMichaels happened to shoot as his son pumped three bullets into the captured black man's chest left nothing to the imagination. That Sunday afternoon jog didn't turn out as Ahmaud Arbery assumed it would; a refreshing run to cap off a good day. That Sunday was not a good day for anyone. But justice took its time. None of the three was immediately taken into custody. Until the video surfaced and the public howled.

At a trial that took two weeks in coastal Brunswick city, the case revolved around whether the three defendants were right to confront the unarmed jogger, based on the supposition he was running away after having committed a crime. The neighbourhood, the defence stressed, had suffered a number of break-ins. They argued on behalf of their clients that there was justification for the shooting after Mr. Arbery ran past the McMichaels' driveway. The defence of property trumping a human life.

The jury was comprised of eleven white men and women, and one Black man. They listened to the prosecution and the defence, asked to hear the 911 call again and to view that damning video and two days later delivered their verdict. All three convicted of murder for chasing and shooting Ahmaud Arbery; rejecting the self-defence claim. The three were charged with murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.

To teach an uppity Black man who imagined himself a proud American citizen, free to exercise his limbs on a public street, a lesson he might never forget to ensure his error would never be repeated. In the process making certain the man would never run again, never have the opportunity to irritate and inflame the minds of whites who view Blacks as looters and criminals, they proved themselves to be  killers and will pay the price.

 

Life in prison, perhaps with the possibility of parole.

It took two months before action was taken to apprehend the three after the cellphone video came to public notice. There is another trial scheduled for the three men who see a looter every time they see a Black face. A federal trial next year, on hate-crime charges.

 

.

 

China's Territorial Claims

"The European Union is going through this moment of self-reflection."

"'What kind of relationship do we want to have with China?' and 'What kind of relationship are we willing to have with Taiwan?'"

"These are the two big questions that still need to be addressed."

Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, former political adviser to the European Parliament

China’s increasingly aggressive posture in East Asia has begun to move Europeans closer to Taiwan.  Getty Images

 

A switch in attitudes appears to be unfolding, where once the nations of Europe kept Taiwan at arm's length, careful not to provoke the People's Republic of China into raised hackles to maintain smooth relations with an autocratic leadership that notoriously prefers 'harmony' in the sense that no moves counter to Beijing's interests would be countenanced on anyone's part with the equanimity of a shrug and tolerance for other opinions. There can be no other opinions once Beijing has expressed its position. On anything.

 

And Beijing's oft-repeated insistence that the island state of Taiwan is part of greater China is one of those non-negotiable positions China is not prepared to discuss anywhere with anyone, since it is a strictly internal matter for China. Now, however, Europe is abandoning its placatory position toward China. Perhaps the decision of the Chinese Communist Party to harass and threaten Taiwan by sending fighter jets over Taiwan's airspace doesn't sit particularly well in Europe.

 

A shift has been noted with Europe reconsidering its relations with both China and Taiwan. China's aggressive tactics has won it no admiration abroad, and is serving to alert European governments to the CPC's perceived entitlement to bully and threaten those who fail to adjust their idea of international law to Beijing's interpretations. 

 

Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister, speaking during a visit to Prague last month.  Credit...Petr David Josek/Associated Press

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling for more robust ties with Taiwan, describing it as a "partner and democratic ally in the Indo-Pacific". Parliament sent its first formal delegation on a visit to the island, despite Beijing's threats of retaliation for spurning its interests. Raphael Glucksmann, the delegation's leader, a French member of the European Parliament, informed Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen: "Europe is standing with you. We came here with a very simple, clear message: 'You are not alone'."

A year ago, Europe and China were finalizing a long-dormant agreement to operate on each other's territory, considered a geopolitical victory for Beijing. China's increasingly vitriolic assertion of authority under Xi Jinping has led to an aura of suspicion against the trade colossus. European lawmakers took steps to block the investment agreement, and as they did, citing China's human rights violations.

China's brutal Hong Kong crackdown on democracy, its coronavirus inception and communication  chapter leading to the international community's struggle to cope with a resulting wholesale social, political, business and economic meltdown, with China's lack of forthcoming alerts, its intimidation of Taiwan and its reputation for social genocide of the Uyghurs in East Turkestan, have all blackened its reputation as a reliable partner in any international sphere of endeavour. 

 

And then, there is the strictly business component of closer ties with Taiwan, a source of semiconductor chips where Taiwan has a vital role in the global supply chain for the chips, used to power iPhones and cars and everything in between. Taiwan is understandably interested in fostering firmer ties with Europe, to be recognized as a sovereign state which it is, and to promote business ties to its advantage.

 

A plaque at the Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania. China has downgraded its ties with Vilnius over the opening of the office. Photograph: EPA

 

Beijing's response has been to threaten it would take countermeasures focusing on each act of outreach to Taiwan. Its ambassador to Lithuania was recalled in August, for starters, diplomatic ties downgraded in response to Lithuania permitting Taiwan to open a de facto embassy. To which Lithuania's Foreign Minister expressed "regret" over China's decision.

China's responses and its fury over any acceptance of Taiwan as an independent country will only serve to see other nations gradually distance themselves from the CPC, the process even leading to China losing access to the European market. According to Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, China will not willingly back down on such core issues as Taiwan and Xinjiang, both representing foci of the tensions.

Occupation By Stealth

"We are going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they have taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation and that indicates some rethink about where they want to take our relationship, but that’s for them to answer."

"I don’t think the Chinese have any doubt on where we stand on our relationship and what’s not gone right with it. I’ve been meeting my counterpart Wang Yi a number of times. As you would’ve experienced, I speak fairly clear, reasonably understandably [and] there is no lack of clarity so if they want to hear it, I am sure they would have heard it."

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar  

"Disputed land between #Bhutan & #China near Doklam shows construction activity between 2020-21." "Multiple new villages spread through an area roughly 100 km² now dot the landscape."

"Is this part of a new agreement or enforcement of #China's territorial claims?"

@detresfa, global researcher, The Intel Lab

 

"China has undertaken construction activities in the past several years along the border areas, including in the areas that it has illegally occupied over decades."

"India has neither accepted such illegal occupation of our territory nor has it accepted the unjustified Chinese claims."

"The government is committed to the objective of creating infrastructure along border areas for improvement of livelihood, including in Arunachal Pradesh."

India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi

"[The report said that despite ongoing diplomatic and military dialogue to reduce border tensions, China has] continued taking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims at the LAC -- [the Line of Actual Control that divides the two countries]."

"Sometime in 2020, the PRC built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between the PRC's Tibet Autonomous Region and India's Arunachal Pradesh state in the eastern sector of the LAC. These and other infrastructure development efforts along the India-China border have been a source of consternation in the Indian government and media."

Pentagon annual report: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China

 

"The Chinese are building villages possibly for billeting and locating their civilians or for the military in the future all along the LAC, particularly after the recent face-off that we have had."

"China is India’s main adversary and not Pakistan.A lack of 'trust' and growing 'suspicion' is coming in the way of resolving the border dispute between the two countries."

"India was stocked up for a 'long winter'."

Indian Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat

An Indian army convoy moves along the Srinagar-Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, northeast of Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir. Control over the Ladakh border region is a key friction point between India and China.

 It has been revealed once again that China has moved with stealth and determination to bypass such irrelevant issues as disputed territory and unresolved lines of territorial sovereignty to grasp land in he high reaches of the Himalaya that is India's and claim it to be part of China's sovereign territory. It represents another land version of the Chinese Communist Party's bold grab in the South and East China Seas, in areas in territorial dispute with Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei, and Malaysia.

 

Satellite imagery shows a village suddenly appearing which did not exist until 2019, one of the buildings in the village with a flag of China painted on its roof; a novel method of territorial claim. Somewhat reminiscent of Russia planting a flag undersea in the disputed high Arctic. Several villages have appeared as though out of nowhere, one with 60 homes another with 100 in the remote Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

 

Just as it has done in East Turkestan, home to Turkic Muslims, mostly Uyghurs, but also Kazakhs and Kyrgyz where Beijing has taken steps to thin out the Uyghur population, sending them elsewhere to work as slave labourers while sending Han Chinese to live in traditional Uyghur territory. China's invasion of Tibet and its hardline suppression of Tibetan culture claiming Tibet as its sovereign territory, also saw Han Chinese being settled in traditional Tibetan areas of habitation. 

Possession, it believes, is nine-tenths of the natural law of ownership. Depriving populations of their heritage geography with claims the territory is in China's possession is a raw adaptation of natural selection by a China that believes it will inherit the world and the global order as the world's first super super-power by persistent and relentless occupation. 

A global researcher with the Intel Lab shared satellite images showing houses built by China in Dongiang, a disputed area with Bhutan. A standoff between the Indian and Chinese armies in 2017 is generally viewed as a prelude to the ongoing border clashes taking place in Ladakh, where dozens of soldiers died and were injured in skirmishes again last year. Tensions between India and China along the Line of Actual Control have arisen, both sides increasing their military presence.

 

Satellite images from last December, left, and from October show China’s construction of a village in territory that the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan also claims. Credit...Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies

China must have the advantage and India must back down as far as Beijing is concerned. It has also come to light that a Chinese army research laboratory has been engaged in genetic research with the intention of aiding soldiers to better operate at high altitudes as Beijing seeks to pursue military technology. And as is usual with China, it pursues collaborative efforts with Western sources who have the advantage in research superiority.

Chinese military forces have in the past trained with Canadian military in far north winter survival techniques. China has established a research relationship at a Danish university where Chinese scientist and citizen Guojie Zhang wrote a research paper with a senior officer in the People's Liberation Army focusing on an experiment exposing laboratory monkeys to extreme altitudes hoping to comprehend the effect of low oxygen levels at high altitudes on brains.

The urgency to China of research such as a 2012 genetic research program into the cause of altitude sickness keys directly into its furtive and aggressive advances in the Himalaya regions disputed between itself and India as China seeks to reinforce its military following its Himalayan border skirmishes with India where oxygen levels on the Tibetan plateau at an elevation of some 1,650 feet can be 35 percent lower than what prevails at sea level.

A report published by King's College London and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in March called for "a full audit of current projects with China" including safeguards to prevent research becoming dependent on cross-funding from tuition fees from international students. Danish universities were warned by Denmark's intelligence agency they could unwittingly become involved in foreign military research.

The logo of Chinese gene firm BGI Group is seen at its building in Beijing, China March 25, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

Terrifying Flooding in British Columbia

These videos shared by Jordan Jongema to his Instagram detailed the devastation to his home in Yarrow and the conditions that stranded him and his dog Bowser on Monday overnight before crews rescued the pair. Photo by JORDAN JONGEMA / INSTAGRAM

Jordan Jongema

"Those ten hours were easily the most terrifying times I've ever experienced in my life."

"I had heard there were looters going around Yarrow to empty houses, so shame on me for staying just a few minutes too long to protect the place."

"As we were leaving, the water pooled over the road and it started like fountaining, like a stream. I could have been driving into a deeper pool so I just...went back to my house and we had to wait it out in there. And as time went by, it got worse and worse.”

"A massive wave of water started to rush [over the roadway and into his front yard]."

"By the time it was midnight, I was wading through the kitchen, swimming in the backyard up to my chest, trying to find any flotation devices. Pitch black and freezing cold water for hours."

"The fear of the pump station breaking and the Fraser River flowing through made me want to die. Bows and I lay on my bed with the water half-an-inch from covering it."

Jordan Jongema, B.C. flood victim, Yarrow, British Columbia

"I believe it was Coquitlam Fire or Coquitlam SAR, actually, went and got that dog right near the end of the [rescue] queue."

"He's a service dog and so the fellow was just over the moon."

"So it was really cool that they were able to pull that off. That was good customer service, definitely worth the risk."

Abbotsford Fire Chief Darren Lee

Bowser, a 120-pound Bernese mountain dog, is pictured in a rescue boat in the early hours of Tuesday after he and his owner Jordan Jongema were rescued after flood waters breached his home and left the pair stranded. Photo by HANDOUT

British Columbia's Interior was  hit by a catastrophic rain event that started last Sunday with high winds and torrential rain. Between Sunday and Monday, more rain fell than normally would in a full month during the province's late fall rainy season. The local weatherman spoke of an 'atmospheric river' that drenched the province causing critical mudslides, rockfalls and floods leaving motorists stranded for 17 hours on highways between two road washouts. Rail lines were disrupted, bridges were washed out and so were highways.

 

Orders for evacuation went out for a number of places inundated by floods. Several hundred people stranded in their vehicles were airlifted by helicopter to safety. Farmers were desperately trying to lead their livestock to higher ground, many remaining behind on their farms despite orders to evacuate. The military was called in to provide logistical and rescue assistance. All of the province's many and varied rescue teams were tasked to endure unsafe conditions to rescue those trapped in flooded areas.

 

A person paddles a kayak past a submerged taxi after the major flood event in Abbotsford. More federal assistance is on its way to the province as reconstruction begins. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Jordan Jongema was one of those trapped people. He and his dog Bowser, a 120-pound Bernese mountain dog, found themselves in a frightening impasse with rising flood waters. They were stranded when rising flood waters suddenly breached his home and property. He was in fact preparing to leave for safety from Yarrow where he lived, some 99 km east of Vancouver. He thought he had time to spare but was soon disabused of that reassurance. 

 

"A massive wave of water started to rush" over the road and into his front yard as he began pulling out of his driveway. With thoughts of his car being flipped by the debris-filled water he turned back, deciding that he and Bowser would stay where they were, safe at home while the water raged outside. Nature had other plans, as he soon discovered. The flood waters entered his house and by 1:00 a.m. reached up to his knees.

He thought about seeking respite from the rising waters on the roof of his house, but found himself struggling with trying to figure out how he might manage to get Bowser onto the roof. And then, an hour later, his phone battery died, leaving him feeling "emotionally butchered". He lay with Bowser on his bed, just minimally above the water level and no doubt imagining what might happen as the water kept inching up.

And then, at about 3:30 a.m., a boat sounded outside his window. He leaped to the window and shouted, shining a flashlight, hoping to attract the attention of whoever it was in the boat. As the rescuers in the boat edged close to the house, Jongema held Bowser up and shoved him out the window, then crawled himself out to the raft. One they reached dry land some kilometres distant, Jongema and Bowser were then driven to a safe site.

According to officials, eleven people in the vicinity that night were rescued overnight. Forty farmers chose to remain in the eastern portion of the Sumas Prairie, tending their properties and their livestock.

Farmers carry their livestock out of a flooded barn in Abbotsford. The city southeast of Vancouver is home to half of B.C.'s dairy farms and has been hit badly by the devastating floods. (Ben Nelms/CBC)