Mr. Trudeau's Posturing in Bali
The main thrust of Prime Minister Trudeau's participation at the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia was as a cheerleader for whatever U.S. President Bidden promoted. This is despite the obvious fact of one U.S. foreign policy failure after another.
Summing up Canada's participation at the end of the Summit, Trudeau stated: "Canada and our allies are united behind Ukraine."
This is patently false seen in the fact that there is no consensus in Europe on how to deal with any issue related to Ukraine. In fact, there is no consensus within the United States either.
Trudeau said that a few days earlier Canada had announced an additional $500 million in military spending for Ukraine, doubling the amount in the 2022 budget, extending the training of recruits for the Ukraine army in Britain till the end of next year, as well as imposing sanctions against 23 individuals for "human rights violations against Russian opposition leaders."
In this regard, Canada continues to deny that it has trained and is continuing to train outright Nazis in Ukraine and that sanctions against Russia involve the theft of property which means that defence of private property has been cast aside by the U.S. so-called rules-based international order. What goes around comes around and when it is the private property of U.S. private interests in other countries which is affected, the likes of Trudeau will scream against authoritarian regimes and abuses of all kinds.
In the most irrational abandonment of any pretense at being scientific, Trudeau declared that Russia must be held accountable for inflation, supply chain snags and fuel price increases, and economic instability around the world. He blamed all of this on the war, not on the internal failures of the economic system itself which can no longer cope with the exponential increase in the productive powers of the productive forces as a result of the discoveries of the technical and scientific revolution and the need for a new direction for the economy which meets the claims of the productive forces.
Trudeau also announced $48 million towards Indonesia's climate change initiatives including for the restoration of biodiversity in coral reefs and mangrove swamps as a contribution to reducing climate change globally.
He emphasized progress in the Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement which was launched in 2021 aimed at enabling Canadian mining, natural resources, agri-food, and manufacturing companies to set up in Indonesia, to create "jobs and opportunities for people in both countries."
Trudeau spoke of his speech at the Business 20 (B20) Summit, part of the G20 Summit, to "a roomful of business people from around the world," as he put it. Revealing his smug view of Canada and its "values," he said:
"They [the business people] know that Canada is a stable place to invest because we have the values that make us a reliable partner, the raw materials, trade access and a skilled and ambitious workforce. I made it clear that Canada is rapidly becoming the energy and tech supplier that a net zero world will need. We are focusing on the whole supply chain. Auto workers building electric vehicles in Ontario with batteries built in Quebec, with nickel and lithium mined in northern Canada."
"Canada is number two in the world for battery supply chain," he declared, "because of the work that our government has done with the private sector."
At the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) event, co-hosted by U.S. President Biden, Trudeau also announced that Canada will invest $750 million to expand the reach of FinDev Canada in the Indo-Pacific region. He said it is to "help respond to the region's massive infrastructure needs, address existing funding gaps, and support wider regional progress toward ending poverty, fighting climate change, and building a future that works for everyone."
When he speaks like this the image that comes to mind is of the little frog in Jean de la Fontaine's fable who was jealous of the buffalo and thought he could blow himself up to rival its size. How ridiculous he sounds when he thinks that the Indo-Pacific's "massive infrastructure needs" et al can be rescued by pittances provided by Canada based on the proviso that they must submit to "Canadian values." The ability of the Chinese state and the states of Indonesia and other countries to provide funds for infrastructure needs et al in the Indo-Pacific is slightly stronger than Canada's, Mr. Trudeau. What world does Trudeau live in and who besides himself does he think he is fooling?
FinDev Canada is a Crown Corporation established by the Trudeau government in 2017 to help collect funds to finance pay-the-rich schemes in developing countries. Canada is listed as a partner in the Biden administration's plan to invest $600 billion by 2027 to fund infrastructure projects around the world under the PGII, a partnership between the U.S. and G7. The PGII aims "to deliver quality, sustainable infrastructure that makes a difference in people's lives around the world, strengthens and diversifies our supply chains, creates new opportunities for American workers and businesses, and advances our national security."
(Government of Canada, CTV News, CPAC, FinDev Canada, White House)
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 8 - November 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/MS520817.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca