CHINA REMAINS A POOR COUNTRY

China has not shown much capacity for developing high technology on its own, but it has been quite effective at stealing such technology from trading partners and applying it through its own system of state-owned enterprises and “national champions” such as Huawei in the telecommunications sector.

But the U.S. and other countries are cracking down on China’s technology theft and China cannot generate the needed technology through its own R&D.

In short, and despite enormous annual growth in the past twenty years, China remains fundamentally a poor country with limited ability to improve the well-being of its citizens much beyond what has already been achieved. And that has serious implications for China’s leadership…

China’s economy is not just about providing jobs, goods and services. It is about regime survival for a Chinese Communist Party that faces an existential crisis if it fails to deliver.

TRUDEAU'S INABILITY TO STAND AGAINST CHINA

Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government sent millions of dollars to the People’s Republic of China — in the form of contracts and foreign aid — despite the fact that Beijing has been holding two Canadians hostage for more than two years and has threatened Canadians living in Canada for opposing the regime’s mistreatment of the Uighur people and its takeover of Hong Kong.

 Canadians deserve answers to other issues, as well. Why, for example, did Trudeau appoint Dominic Barton to be Canada’s ambassador to China, knowing full well that the firm McKinsey & Company, where Barton spent nearly a decade acting as managing director, had extensive economic interests in the country? Why did the Trudeau government give away intellectual property to a Chinese vaccine maker and not pursue remediation after it reneged on the deal? And why is Canada the only Five Eyes member that hasn’t officially banned Huawei from its 5G network?

PERSECUTION OF CANADIAN PHYSICIANS

 In this group interview facilitated by Sam Dubé, M.D., Ph.D., four physicians from across Canada – emergency physician Dr. Chris Milburn, rural family physician Dr. Charles Hoffe, general surgeon Dr. Francis Christian, and pathologist Dr. Roger Hodkinson – tell their stories of persecution at the hands of their governing bodies. Their only crime: practicing evidence-based medicine by questioning the safety of their patients and the public during the pandemic.

A legal representative for their cases, John Carpay, Esq., provides insights and legal commentary, invoking the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These physicians, and others like them, are the living embodiment of the medical mantras of “do no harm” and “informed consent”.

FIRE DAMAGE IN LYTTON, BC

 LYTTON — More than a week after a wildfire swept through town, Lytton’s main street is an alien place.  The town on the banks of the muddy Fraser River is dramatically altered. Only a handful of structures remain, including the post office and church, and there is a dreadful symmetry to the grey ruins.

Trucks with melted wheels sit outside charred shops. Brick chimneys anchor piles of debris. A picket fence encloses the ashy ruins of a house. Skeleton trees border a lawn that is somehow still green.

Power lines lie in tangles on the sidewalks. Several buildings seem to have collapsed, while others were incinerated. Gone is the clinic, the RCMP detachment and an assisted-living home.

MOVING THE COVID GOALPOSTS IN ONTARIO

Premier Doug Ford has made clear that he’d like things open sooner rather than later but he’s also urged caution and said he will listen to the medical experts. Well, now those experts are stepping forward to issue an extra dose of caution lest we enjoy our summer too much.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s new chief medical officer of health, is warning that, out of an abundance of caution, kids may still need to wear masks when school resumes this fall. It’s a position that has received support from other local medical officers — not for COVID but for other viruses.

 Moore also said that he doesn’t want anything to open before the 21-day interval between Step 2 and Step 3 of the roadmap, meaning no changes until at least July 21. I say at least because Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of the self-appointed Ontario Science Table, told CP24 that we can’t possibly move to Step 3 yet.

THE NEXT FEDERAL ELECTION

  Rex Murphy:  I have seen the picture of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the teddy bear.

Some people have suggested the photograph of him kneeling solemnly with the bear was staged and could be read as a subtle sign that election time is here.

We should not be having an election at all this soon. It is immoral. There should be a waiting period of at least one year to see the consequences of all the emergency spending indulged in during the pandemic. There should be at least a year to judge how many businesses and jobs have been lost, where they were lost and by whom.

 There is no justification — other than power and vanity — for shoving the country into a federal election while everyone is still staggering from the effects of the pandemic: the biggest, most comprehensive and far-reaching event to hit our country and every other one since the world wars. We need time and space to assess it.

PM's BORDER CLOSURE A SHAM

As travel resumes around the world, Trudeau’s Liberals are taking an absurdly cautious approach. Last month, officials said a significant majority, a minimum of 75 per cent, of Canadians need to be double vaccinated before they ease border restrictions.

“I wish there was a more artful way to say this, but this is bulls–t,” said Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democratic congressman from Buffalo, N.Y., when the decision was announced. “It’s arbitrary. It doesn’t follow the science, it doesn’t follow the facts, it doesn’t follow the data.”

If Higgins was upset in June, he must’ve been absolutely fuming on Friday. In what would be an epic troll if it didn’t adversely affect so many people’s lives and livelihoods, Trudeau suggested he may actually require 80 per cent of Canadians to get two doses before further relaxing border controls.