QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Canada-China Relations—Security
December 9, 2020
Honourable senators, I have a question for Senator Gold on the planned takeover of TMAC Resources Inc. by Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co., Ltd., one of the world’s largest gold producers.
Retired Major-General David Fraser cited security concerns including the mine’s proximity to Canada’s early warning radar facilities in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, as well as the mine’s use as a port in Hope Bay, which has serious strategic and military value. Former CSIS director Richard Fadden shares the same concern. In fact, there are myriad voices saying there is a lack of Canadian leadership on economic infrastructure and security in the Arctic — issues with icebreakers and deep-water ports, and little industrial development in stark contrast to both Russian and Chinese investment and preparedness in the region.
Major-General David Fraser said, and these are his words, not mine:
If you look at what they have done on the South China Sea to extend their area of influence – what’s to stop them, once they get squatter’s rights and get into this port, of doing the same thing . . . .
Senator Gold, the government has recently ordered that the security review be extended by 45 days. Can we please stop stalling, take a stand on this and on Huawei, as our allies have done, to stop China’s encroachment on our sovereignty and security, and make our concern over the two Michaels extraordinarily clear?
Thank you, senator, for raising those issues, all of which are matters that engage not only this government but all parties and all Canadian citizens.
The study and the review to which you referred is ongoing and not completed. When it is, an announcement will be made. I can assure this chamber that efforts to secure the release of the two Michaels, and indeed, to provide for the appropriate compassion and treatment of other detainees held by China is an ongoing preoccupation of this government.
I want to remind everyone that the FBI director stateside, Chris Wray, recently stated publicly that he opens a China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours. There is evidence of covert operations here. We have acknowledged coercive diplomacy on the part of the Chinese, as we learned during the pandemic in terms of access to drugs and PPE. Those were withheld.
Why do we not follow the lead of our allies — I’m thinking of Australia but also the U.K. and the U.S. — and invoke some strong economic and diplomatic responses to China’s despicable jailing of the two Michaels? It will be, as you well know, two years tomorrow.
Indeed. Let me refer back to part of an earlier answer. Canada is working closely with its allies on these and many other fronts, as it is the position of this government that working with our allies is the best and most effective way for Canada’s voice to be heard and to be amplified.
I also refer back to observations that were made in this chamber most recently about the complexity of foreign relations. As Senator Boehm correctly pointed out, these issues are more complex than can sometimes be captured in the context of a parliamentary question and answer period. But again, I assure this chamber that the government is well aware of the importance to the two Michaels, to their families and to all Canadians, to see them released and is doing everything it can to secure that end.
