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New Canadian Politics Thread

UWHabs said:
Dougie winning means anything could happen, but yes, Sheer doesn't have anywhere near the Folksy attitude that Ford has. And as bad as it looks for the Liberals, the NDP is just a tire fire right now. And given what Ford has done since he won, I can't imagine he's helping the conservative brand in Ontario.
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Ford didn't win the election in Ontario. The PC's won.

Patrick Brown had that party in a comfortable lead for over 3 years. Ford walked onto a winning campaign.
 
Yet another reminder to never trust the horseshit you see on facebook

https://calgaryherald.com/news/poli...albertans-dont-want-to-separate-says-new-poll

As it turns out, Albertans want to stay put — the vast majority of them, anyway.

A new poll found 69 per cent of Albertans surveyed disagreed with the notion the province “would be better off as its own country.” This includes 58 per cent of respondents who strongly disagreed with separatist sentiments.

Only one-quarter of those surveyed indicated they viewed Alberta separatism in a positive light.
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It's almost as if living through continual boom/bust cycles has taught Albertans that going it alone is a bad idea.
 
Canadian sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking before huawei CFO arrest, sentenced to death after huawei CFO arrest.

Two more Canadians in Chinese custody.
 
So the cops can now breathalyze me in my home 2 hours after I drove my car? Or like, in a bar?

Is this real? I mean, I'm completely against drunk driving. But...
 
zeke said:
this is big, and bad.

this cannot stand.
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Complicated problem.

So we have a guy who tried to smuggle over 200kg of meth out of China to bring back to Australia and gets caught. Chinese law allows for the death penalty at something like 100 grams and they gave him what was considered an extremely lenient sentence in 2014. Same guy served 18 months in jail in BC for...you guessed it, drug smuggling, and was released something like 12 months before getting pinched in China. So this likely isn't some random tourist that Chinese authorities just snagged in case they had a row with Canada 5 years later. This is a guy who broke a serious law in an authoritarian dictatorship half way around the world. Play stupid games....

Is this move by China politically motivated? Absolutely. Was their "lenient" sentence in 2014 also politically motivated? Most likely. Will they use this as leverage in discussions about the Huawei exec? Yeah probably. Are we caught in the middle of some grand standing Trump bullshit? Also yeah probably. We should absolutely stand up to China here and demand that our citizen, however ****ed up he is, has his basic human rights honoured...but what cost are we willing to pay?
 
MindzEye said:
Complicated problem.

So we have a guy who tried to smuggle over 200kg of meth out of China to bring back to Australia and gets caught. Chinese law allows for the death penalty at something like 100 grams and they gave him what was considered an extremely lenient sentence in 2014. Same guy served 18 months in jail in BC for...you guessed it, drug smuggling, and was released something like 12 months before getting pinched in China. So this likely isn't some random tourist that Chinese authorities just snagged in case they had a row with Canada 5 years later. This is a guy who broke a serious law in an authoritarian dictatorship half way around the world. Play stupid games....

Is this move by China politically motivated? Absolutely. Was their "lenient" sentence in 2014 also politically motivated? Most likely. Will they use this as leverage in discussions about the Huawei exec? Yeah probably. Are we caught in the middle of some grand standing Trump bullshit? Also yeah probably. We should absolutely stand up to China here and demand that our citizen, however ****ed up he is, has his basic human rights honoured...but what cost are we willing to pay?
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while I agree with everything you said, he had already been tried and sentenced. changing his sentence was entirely political bullshit. by Chinese law, you can only proceed with a retrial if there is new evidence. if his lawyer is to be believed, there is not a shred of new evidence. i.e. this is entirely political bullshit grandstanding.

so while yes, he ****ed up by being a drug smuggler in a country like China, the Chinese are still clearly using their 'justice system' to achieve political goals.
 
WellPlayed said:
So the cops can now breathalyze me in my home 2 hours after I drove my car? Or like, in a bar?

Is this real? I mean, I'm completely against drunk driving. But...
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my understanding is they can now request a breath sample any time. they no longer need probable cause.

it will take a few years, but the new laws will eventually be tested in court, parts will be found unconstitutional, and the government will go back to the drawing board.

but yeah, they can demand a breath sample any time.

AND, you can be charged with impaired if you are found to be impaired up to 2 hours after you finished driving. that provision was put in place to stop people who would crush a bunch of booze and then drive before their body had metabolized enough to put them over the limit. it's pretty clearly an overreach though, I cannot imagine it will be found constitutional.
 
MindzEye said:
Complicated problem.

So we have a guy who tried to smuggle over 200kg of meth out of China to bring back to Australia and gets caught. Chinese law allows for the death penalty at something like 100 grams and they gave him what was considered an extremely lenient sentence in 2014. Same guy served 18 months in jail in BC for...you guessed it, drug smuggling, and was released something like 12 months before getting pinched in China. So this likely isn't some random tourist that Chinese authorities just snagged in case they had a row with Canada 5 years later. This is a guy who broke a serious law in an authoritarian dictatorship half way around the world. Play stupid games....

Is this move by China politically motivated? Absolutely. Was their "lenient" sentence in 2014 also politically motivated? Most likely. Will they use this as leverage in discussions about the Huawei exec? Yeah probably. Are we caught in the middle of some grand standing Trump bullshit? Also yeah probably. We should absolutely stand up to China here and demand that our citizen, however ****ed up he is, has his basic human rights honoured...but what cost are we willing to pay?
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honestly, this is an outrage.

we should be screaming from the rooftops, calling on our allies, and telling the chinese that this is nothing more than a political murder, and even an act of war. this is china spitting in the face of the entire western democratic order. it cannot be business as usual after this.
 
zeke said:
honestly, this is an outrage.

we should be screaming from the rooftops, calling on our allies, and telling the chinese that this is nothing more than a political murder, and even an act of war. this is china spitting in the face of the entire western democratic order. it cannot be business as usual after this.
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I dunno, I kinda just see this as China being China. I expect them to do shit like this. The only difference this time is a Canadian is probably going to lose their life over it (granted, that is a substantial and meaningful difference).

but China routinely spits in the face of the western democratic order. arguably more than ever under Xi.

and I think we've already moved beyond 'business as usual' on account of the trade war and arrest of Meng.

don't get me wrong, China is evil in so so many ways. I just don't know why people would start caring about it more now, even after this.
 
They are murdering a canadian because they think one of their citizens should be above the law.

it is outrageous.
 
zeke said:
They are murdering a canadian because they think one of their citizens should be above the law.

it is outrageous.
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I don't disagree. I just don't think much of anything will come of it. nor do I think this is in any way 'anomalous' or abnormal behaviour for that regime.

hey, maybe this wakes people and regimes up to the kind of shit China is routinely pulling.
 
Wayward DP said:
while I agree with everything you said, he had already been tried and sentenced. changing his sentence was entirely political bullshit. by Chinese law, you can only proceed with a retrial if there is new evidence. if his lawyer is to be believed, there is not a shred of new evidence. i.e. this is entirely political bullshit grandstanding.

so while yes, he ****ed up by being a drug smuggler in a country like China, the Chinese are still clearly using their 'justice system' to achieve political goals.
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I agree with everything you just said. I just thought that it wasn't a secret that China's belief in the rule of law was entirely a veneer. They're the country everyone deals with because we're all ****ing greedy and they're good to do business with.
 
yeah, something definitely gets lost in the translation of 'rule of law', seems more like 'arm of the party' in Mandarin.
 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/china-international-criticism-death-sentence-canadian-1.4980001

China said on Wednesday it's "not worried in the slightest" by mounting international concern over the death sentence handed to a Canadian for drug smuggling.

Monday's sentence for Robert Schellenberg for smuggling 222 kilograms of methamphetamines into China prompted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse China of "arbitrarily" applying the death penalty.

The United Nations said it was opposed to the death penalty apart from exceptional circumstances, and Australia's acting foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, said he was "deeply concerned" by the case.

Speaking at a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Canada's "so-called allies could be counted on 10 fingers" and that they do not represent "the entire international community."
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I'm not sure what China is doing here other than extracting their pound of flesh for the arrest of the Huawei CFO, an arrest I'm increasingly thinking just wasn't worth it for Canada.
 
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Canada's "so-called allies could be counted on 10 fingers" and that they do not represent "the entire international community."
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sure seems like it.

the US and UK used to be on our side here. not so much anymore.
 
zeke said:
sure seems like it.

the US and UK used to be on our side here. not so much anymore.
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A lot of allies are missing.

France

Germany

Australia

Japan

Everyone seems to be dealing with issues at home, and can't be bothered to weigh in on the Canada China spat.
 
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