Trooping the Colours of Democratic Liberalism

"Putin's attack on Ukraine is an attack on the values that form the pillars of all democracies. We have a responsibility to make the case to people about why these values matter so much -- not just to Ukrainians but to us all."

"We must recommit ourselves to the work of strengthening our democracies, and demonstrate the principled leadership people are looking for."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Despite Canadian legacy media outlets burying the story, the reprimand of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by European parliamentarians in Brussels has made headlines around the world. True North

Canada's 'charismatic' prime minister, the man who rode to success during the 2015 election that brought him to the helm of government, enjoyed telling the international community at events taking him outside his country that "Canada is back!". He never stopped deriding the previous, Conservative-led government that preceded him, led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His initial actions on coming to power included reversing most of the moves of the previous government, and then he put his own personal imprint on government departments, renaming them all. 

 

This man preened and presented himself as a 'feminist' and a supporter of Indigenous rights, yet when his government's female/Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General refused to surrender to the pressure he and his cronies subjected her to in the interests of airbrushing away prosecution of a prominent Quebec company accused of international corruption, he moved her from her position, demoting her to a lesser portfolio, and finally removed her from caucus.

When the second-in-command of the Canadian military attempted to support the need for a re-supply vessel for Canada's ill-equipped navy, Justin Trudeau persecuted him, saw to his removal from office, and ordered a judicial enquiry into alleged wrong-doing, the consequences of which were an absolute acquittal. Justin Trudeau as prime minister of Canada has done more to drive a wedge between Western Canada and Eastern Canada than any of his predecessors.

He saw fit to elevate a spurious charitable enterprise during the initial days of the COVID pandemic; a group unqualified to fill a questionable position that would profit them greatly. A charitable enterprise whose operators were personal 'friends' engaged in questionable ethics, which paid the prime minister's mother and brother handsomely for celebrity appearances geared to give greater credibility to the charity, but which ended in a public scandal, forcing the Minister of Finance to step away from office.

During his time as prime minister of Canada, democracy has been eroded by decisions made by Justin Trudeau, with limited appearances in the House of Commons, and remotely-gathered sessions to conduct government business. He unnecessarily prorogued government for sustained periods of time, and would not be answerable for the lapse in government business, preferring lengthy adjournments attributable to his personal agenda.

This is a man who felt entitled to travel once again to Europe to speak to European parliamentarians to plead for unity in responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a man who drove separatist impulse in Western Canada over his unequal and dismissive treatment of provincial assets and governments with which he would not agree. Democracies, he informed the European parliamentarians, is under attack in Ukraine, as though he was a leading exponent of democratic justice.

Trudeau's penchant for personal unaccountability, his practised aversion to direct response to questions, indulging in circumlocution, his automatic response to critics, lapsing into accusations of 'racism' and 'anti LGBTQ2' prejudices are legendary, known beyond Canada. When he mentioned as an example the recent truckers' protests in the streets around Parliament Hill in Ottawa last month, citing the Freedom Convoy as a conspiracy to turn citizens against a democratic system he described as best-suited, he drew a principled response from a handful of European delegates.

A response that made long-suffering Canadians sigh in appreciation that the hypocrisy and egocentricity of the man who has spoken of Canada as a 'racist' country, a country without any culture of its own, along with his aspiration to make of it a 'post-national' country has received recognition. The protesters in Ottawa, fed up with their government's autocratic mandates verging on dictatorship asked to be listened to. Their government had mandated that the ten percent of truckers who were unvaccinated must be.

People who for whatever reason would not submit to vaccination became, under Trudeau, third-class citizens whom he regarded with repugnance as unspeakable riffraff. He directed that they be unemployable without vaccination. Families with no incomes, struggling to get through a difficult period in their collective lives wanted an explanation and an answer from their prime minister, who refused to meet with them. Their protest was an affront to his sense of infallibility. 

"To defend our rights and the rights of our children, which we have acquired over the centuries, many of us – including myself – are willing to risk our own freedom and our own lives. Unfortunately, today there are those among us who trample on these fundamental values."

"Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months."

"We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes. To you, these may be liberal methods, for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind. Rest assured that the citizens of the world, united, can stop any regime that wants to destroy."

Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic

 

"Based on article 195, I would like to point out that it would have been appropriate for Mr. Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, to address this house, according to article 144. An article, which was specifically designed to debate the violations of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law which is clearly the case with Mr. Trudeau."

"[You are a] disgrace for any democracy. Please spare us your presence."

German MP Christine Anderson

Anderson accused Trudeau of openly admiring the Chinese basic dictatorship and called out the prime minister for trampling on “fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists just because they dare to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy.”

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.