National security is perhaps the most important issue for any democratic government. Keeping its citizens safe from a cruel world of our enemies  is paramount. 

There has been much talk in the past year about the Chinese tech giant Huawei and their attempts to penetrate and have a hand in the next generation of internet connectivity with 5G networking. 

Canada is a part of the “Five Eyes” – a partnership between the United States, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom to share intelligence gathered against common adversaries. Of those countries, the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is paramount. 

Russia may posture and huff and puff, but they are nowhere near as consequential on the world stage as China. 

There is no question that the PRC has been actively engaged in forging closer ties to Canada, our governments and Canadian companies for several decades. The topic of the PRC and Asian Organized Crime (AOC) figures trying to influence senior figures in our government was the subject of a joint CSIS/RCMP report in the late 90’s called “Project Sidewinder.” 

Sidewinder focused on the financial links between Asian triads to Canada and Canadian companies. Twenty three years later, it is still a sobering read. 

More sobering is the fact the report recommended a full investigation be launched. However, it was killed by the Prime Minister’s Office of Jean Chretien, a move supported by the civilian oversight of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) arm of the government called Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), then led by Bob Rae.

The whole debacle reeked of corruption and it seems nothing has changed in the intervening years. 

As the governments of the other Five Eyes countries banned Chinese company Huawei from participating in their 5G networks, Canada has done no such thing. By failing to do so, the Trudeau government is risking our alliance with our strongest allies for what can only be said to be an attempt to appease the PRC. Why? 

This week, we learned that the alleged head of the illegal casino being run in a Toronto mansion, Wei Wei, had met at least twice with the Prime Minister. In addition, the organization Wei was involved with donated more than a million dollars to the Trudeau Foundation. 

An analysis of the Trudeau Foundation shows how money began to rain down on the foundation once Justin Trudeau took over as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and really blossomed once he became Prime Minister. 

That in itself should offend all Canadians. But it doesn’t because most of the mainstream media doesn’t talk about it and looks the other way. 

In September of 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office published a document called “Terms of Reference: Canada – China High Level Dialogue on National Security and the Rule of Law.”

There was virtually no media coverage of this agreement yet it has profound implications on our national security and our relationship with the PRC. 

The agreement is mostly bureaucratic BS. But it contains this nugget: 

“The Dialogue is to be chaired jointly by the Secretary General of the Central Committee for Politics and Law of the People’s Republic of China and Canada’s National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister.”

Chaired by a senior member of the Politburo in Beijing and the Canadian National Security Advisor who reports directly to the Prime Minister? 

Why didn’t the government just invite the Politburo to occupy a desk in the PMO?

One might almost think this would have raised some flags.

And notwithstanding the 1997 Sidewinder report, the Liberal government is seemingly back at it with their Chinese overlords. This is outrageous. 

In 2016, Justin Trudeau appointed a career civil servant who was the President of the Canada China Business Council (CCBC) to the Senate of Canada. Peter Harder became the nominal head of the Liberal government in the Senate with responsibility to shepherd government legislation through the chamber of sober second thought. 

As a side note, I should add the the current executive of the CCBC consists of Oliver Desmarais, the son of Andre Desmarais, who served on the board of China International Trust Investment Corporation with the likes of Li Ka Shing who was prominently named in the Sidewinder report as a major figure in Asian Organized Crime. 

One wonders where the RCMP is in all of this. They are, after all, responsible for national security investigations. 

But the Commissioner of the RCMP Brenda Lucki seems content with allowing the status quo to continue. 

As a former member of the RCMP, I am offended. 

The Liberal government spent $213,500 to defend former veterans affairs minister Seamus O’Regan in a small-claim defamation lawsuit by a veteran O’Regan singled out in an op-ed.

O’Regan was the target of a suit by former air force intelligence officer Sean Bruyea, who alleged O’Regan, now the natural resources minister, defamed him in a 2018 piece in The Hill Times.

In the op-ed, O’Regan accused “individuals like Sean Bruyea” of spreading “mistruths” about a government pension program to “suit their own agenda.” O’Regan’s op-ed was in response to an article by Bruyea criticizing the Liberal government’s plan to handle injured veterans.  

“I’m floored. I feel the government has to defend itself against frivolous claims. This was not a frivolous claim. This person was defamed by a minister and the government spent almost ten times the original claim to defend against it,” said Conservative Senator Don Plett, who requested a disclosure on the costs of the suit and subsequent settlement. 

According to a statement from June 2019, O’Regan and the federal government don’t “admit any liability or wrongdoing” in the settlement agreement. 

“A settlement has been reached in this case. In keeping with the settlement, we will not be commenting further,” natural resources ministry spokesperson Ian Cameron told the CBC.

Critics have accused the Liberals of ignoring veterans and mishandling disability benefits for those injured in the line of fire. 

Since Trudeau was elected in 2020, Veterans Affairs Canada has struggled with a backlog of benefits applications.

In September, the Parliamentary Budget Office reported that it would take over three years to process all of the claims currently in the backlog. 

“We foresee the backlog will be approximately 40,000 applications by the end of fiscal year 2022,” the PBO wrote in a recent report.

“Our projections show that, without additional resources, the number of pending applications for disability benefits would have reached approximately 140,000 by that time.”

Over the last three years, the backlog ballooned from 20,693 applications to 49,216. The estimated cost of fixing the delay would cost the government an estimated $103 million in additional funding. 

The department has struggled with underfunding despite $105 million of unspent funds earmarked for Veterans Affairs by the Liberals.