There are marked differences on how people are arrested, go to trial and convicted in Canada and China. I have read so many first hand accounts of Chinese arrest and torture that they are too numerous to mention. There are many common methods used in China, and common through numerous different areas of China. The differences are stark: Canada adheres to the Rule of Law, human rights and transparency, while China is very uncertain, oblique, and treated on a case-by-case, “Rule-is-law”, basis.
Huawei, one of China’s large computer companies, has been accused of selling US computers to Iran. The US asked and planned with Canada to arrest Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, when she was on route from Hong Kong to Mexico. The arrest occurred on 2018 Dec 01. Shortly after this China arrested two Canadians in China fo “endangering national security”. They have not been heard from since. It is widely understood to be retribution against Canada by China for assisting the US for the arrest.
Abandon All Hope All Ye Canadians Who Enter Here. SCMP
The first arrest was Canadian ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig, detained in China today for unknown reasons. The second Canadian was Michael Spavor, who runs an NGO specializing in tours to North Korea.
The US, Canada and Mexico have signed the USMCA, to be ratified by all, but pretty much done. One of the more controversial sections is Articles 32.10: Non-market Country FTA, designed to seemingly limit all three countries from having a free trade agreement with non-market countries, unnamed but specifically China. How does this work?
The actual Article 32.10 section is below in its entirety, quoted verbatim from the USMCA. Let us get to the important points.
Summary: If any USMCA country enters into a free trade agreement FTA with a non-market economy, the other USMCA countries could turn the USMCA into a bilateral agreement.
No photo says it more clearly than the photo of Angela Merkel staring down Trump at the recent G6+1 summit in Quebec, Canada. This was supposed to be a meeting of Allied countries, not a meeting of enemies.
Merkel and the rest of the G6 countries confront Trump, 2018 May 11, Charlevoix, Quebec
I quote Stephen Colbert: “Still Life With Douchebag”. Not only funny but apt. There seems a lack of friendliness with Allied countries, which Trump has put tariff on all Allied countries. Then there is the issue of insulting Justin Trudeau and Canada in general.
This plays out exactly the same in many countries, so one should not be at all surprised. A Chinese company wants to buy a foreign company, the foreign government blocks the sale, Chinese Government gets upset, calls the blocking racially motivated and implements trade sanctions on the foreign country. There are many cases in many different countries that I see this as one from China’s economic trade playbook.
NoFrills grocery store web site has a selection screen of yellow buttons with white text. This colour contrast is so low and is very difficult to read.
There are more than a few user interface errors on the NoFrills web site. Our family is a frequent shopper at NoFrills, the Canadian grocery store. Thankfully they are much better as a grocery store than they are at building and maintaining their website.
A couple of weeks ago they blocked me because I have an ad blocker. Really? I want to see your advertisement flyer, which is displayed on your site, and because I have an ad blocker you deny me the ability to see your flyer? Is not this counter-productive to my family buying from your store?
Facial recognition sunglasses used by Chinese police in Zhengzhou, Henan Province during Chinese New Year.
Facial recognition software has been used in China for quite a while. China has used facial recognition software to scan large gatherings of people in an effort to capture known criminals. The benefit to greater society outweighs all privacy concerns. In North America, we value our privacy and do not want the authorities to accumulate vast amounts of facial recognition data. North Americans believe we should be able to walk around in public and not be recorded for whatever purpose.
Little Giant 554405 VCMA-15 non-submersible condensate pump, removed from black base. Output tube, pump intake and impeller (large round part). You can see the impeller shaft through the intake windows.
Even the most elementary animals do not defecate where they live. Even so, their scat is biodegradable and is quickly transformed to base organic waste by microbes. This is natural. Man, on the other hand, has created a remarkable material: plastic. Remarkable, yes, but it is inorganic and as it does not break down to an organic waste, it is polluting the earth and mankind. Ironically, we are eating our own waste.
Bumble bee, Toronto, Canada, 2 cm long, in cup. Photo by Don Tai
I heard this loud buzzing and thought my furnace had some issue, but the furnace wsa not on. It was a large bumble bee, buzzing inside my house, trying to break free. My front window was tricking it. He was beautiful.
I heard it yesterday in my house. How it found its way inside I do not know. By the time I thought of a plant to capture and release it outside, he had stopped buzzing and could not be found. Today near my front window he buzzed for a couple of seconds, then landed on the ground. I used a cup and captured it, and used a piece of stiff paper underneath to right the cup. With a transparent Pyrex plate on top I shot this macro at 3.5x.
We all know that China annexed and militarized some disputed islands in the South China Seas. These islands are claimed by multiple countries. In 2016 a dispute between the Philippines and China resulted in the Hague ruling that China did not have claim to these islands. No matter, China took them over anyway. They how house surface to air missiles. Much more can be gleaned online with minimal Googling.
