by Harvey Oberfeld
August 16, 2021
Elections normally are about issues: jobs, economy; housing, health, environment, taxes; programs and promises.
Rarely are they REALLY about principles … like who we are as a nation, what values do we REALLY represent and REALLY uphold and what do we REALLY see when we look at ourselves in the mirror.
This election, Canadians MUST do that.
Earlier this year, Canada’s Parliament passed a motion 266 to 0 condemning China’s “genocide” against its minority Muslim Uyghur population.
Elected legislative Houses in the UK, US, Netherlands, Lithuania also passed motions finding China GUILTY of genocide; while New Zealand, Belgium and the Czech Republic have censured China for “severe human rights abuses or crimes against humanity”.
How in the world can Canada … or ANY of these countries … participate in and celebrate the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic games!!!
The FREE World embarrassed and disgraced itself when our athletes took part in Adolf Hitler’s Berlin Olympics in 1936 … a huge propaganda spectacle, exalted and exploited by the Nazis after the Reich captured 89 Medals, beating the US’s 56.
We would not allow ourselves to be used like that again, we vowed.
The TRUTH is China’s human rights record TODAY is WORSE than Nazi Germany’s was at the time of those 1936 Games.
The Nazis enacted their Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935, restricting citizenship to “only racially pure Germans” and banning intermarriages/sex between Jews and people “of German or related blood.”
Disgraceful!
BUT, Germany’s actual genocide against Jews didn’t begin until 1941 … five years after the Olympics; China’s is carrying out genocide right NOW!
Would Canada and other democratic nations have attended the Berlin Olympics if genocide was actively being carried out at that time?
I don’t believe so: I sure hope not!
As critical as I have been about Canada’s despicable treatment of our Japanese-Canadian citizens and the rebuffing of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, I don’t believe we would have “played” with Germany if their genocidal actions had already begun … and the world knew about it.
However, we DO know China IS carrying out genocide against the Uyghurs … our own Parliament (and others) has investigated and concluded that indeed IS the case.
On that basis alone, Canada (and other principled nations) MUST NOT participate in the Beijing games.
And that doesn’t even touch on China’s other human rights abuses, spitting on and ripping up treaties and flagrant violations of international laws on both land and at sea.
The hostage taking and abuse (almost 1,000 days) of the two Michaels, the cruel political “re-sentencing” to death of Robert Schellenberg, the illegal suppression of Hong Kong, the draconian imposition of a human-rights-killing National Security law, the intimidation of students, the persecution of protestors, the silencing of opinions/dissent and the repugnant arrests and silencing of intellectuals, artists, journalists, media owners and even bloggers.
China today, under Xi Jinping, is NOT a civilized nation deserving the honour of being an Olympic Game host. It has become a brutal bully that tramples human rights and is CARRYING OUT GENOCIDE!
We must not ignore this!
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole has called for the Games to be relocated: not likely. And failing that, he wants Canadian athletes to stay home:
“I think Canadians would agree that it would violate universal fundamental ethical principles to participate in an Olympic Games hosted by a country that is committing a genocide against part of its population,” O’Toole said at a press conference in Ottawa. “Canada must take a stand,” the CBC reported.
(You can read the full story here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/o-toole-relocate-olympic-games-2020-1.5915318.)
Each and every Federal Party Leader MUST come clean during this Election campaign … and say CLEARLY whether his or her party, if elected, would STOP Canada’s participation in Xi’s February propaganda farce in Beijing.
Remember, the FREE WORLD vowed “Never Again!” after the horrific genocide of the Second World War, not “Never Again …unless we’ve got a good chance of winning medals!”
Harv Oberfeld
