It’s kind of amazing the way Liberal politicians live up to my headlines, if I do say so myself.
Last week, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Canada and the People’s Republic of China will enhance law enforcement cooperation on drug trafficking, transnational and cybercrime, and money laundering. On paper, this sounds reasonable. Fentanyl is devastating communities. Cybercrime drains billions. Organized crime adapts faster than borders.
But experience teaches me that cooperation with the PRC is never just technical, never apolitical, and never insulated from the priorities of the Chinese Communist Party. Canadians deserve to understand the risks.
In Canada, policing is constrained by courts, disclosure rules, independent prosecutors, and an entrenched—if imperfect—commitment to individual rights. In the PRC, law enforcement is an extension of state security. Its primary function is not public safety as Canadians understand it, but regime stability.
Well, to be fair, regime stability is important to Ottawa as well.
Related: Liberals are now claiming that CLIPS of bureaucrats testifying in Parliament are a “safety risk” to officials