Floor-crossing Liberal MP downplays reports of forced labour in China (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 22 hours ago by ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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Michael Ma was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada when he was 12. He was raised and educated in Vancouver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ma

I can find no reference to his age, or to the year in which he immigrated to Canada. Hong Kong was transferred to China on July 1, 1997, 29 years ago, so I could not determine if he immigrated to Canada when Hong Kong was British, or part of China. But unless he is younger than 41, it was before Hong Kong was transferred back to China, and he would probably have been, rough;y interpreted, a British Subject in Limbo, (A British passport to the rest of the world but not really a British passport in Britain). This certainly goes towards addressing any issue of bias, and if he could hold a Chinese passport by birth.

https://passportia.org/en/uk-citizenship-hong-kong.php

This certainly does put an interesting twist on the Canada-China dialogue. It is really difficult to sort through fact-from-fiction, depending on where you were indoctrinated with your Chinese history knowledge.

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[-] we_all_live_in_a_capital_i@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I watched the CBC clip. That style of "questioning" is antithetical to understanding and opposite to information-gathering. It is used by politicians (and others) who have no interest in making evidence-based decisions. He didn't want information, didn't want to understand, and will only make governing decisions based on his existing ideology. There should be no place in government for MPs who wilfully ignore opportunities to better understand the issues they are dealing with. I feel bad for the witness. She came to provide information and was attacked by an idiot.

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago

His office freely admitted that he was using a tactic he learned while he was a member of the PC party. So was the 'idiocy' from the PC or the Liberal Party?

[-] we_all_live_in_a_capital_i@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

I posted my comment before his non-apology and his office's weak response. But to answer your question, neither. No one makes an MP behave that way. No party makes an MP behave that way. He chose to attack a witness instead of seeking to understand her information and perspective. He made no apology to the witness. He chose to use a stupid "tactic". That makes him an idiot, in my view. I suspect the Liberals made him apologize, but who knows. He obviously doesn't think anything was wrong with it. I don't know why he crossed the floor.

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

Politics is politics. To understand the questioning, it must be understood that this witness was NOT selected as an unbiased witness, but was selected specifically BECAUSE of her bias towards the issue, and towards China. She was an assistant deputy minister, which basically means an unelected politician specifically indoctrinated in the policies of the political party in power at the time. Her position was well understood long before she took the stand. There was no hope of getting any unbiased neutral 'facts' from her from the get-go.

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

Unfortunately, I see this tactic used by the PC members quite frequently, so I can accept that it is a tactic that party promotes in their members. It is, unfortunately, extremely common in the House of our neighbors to the south of us.

[-] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 3 points 14 hours ago

This person should resign immediately imo. His line of questioning on forced labour in China very concerning to say the least, it perfectly resembles the argumentation of Chinese propagandists.

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago

That is why the importance of understanding his background, and connection to China. Being from per-Chinese Hong Kong, he would not necessarily be a propagandist for China. That part is difficult to follow.

[-] Scotty@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

The way he was questioning this expert comes right out of the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda playbook. He didn't even try to understand what she said but rather aimed at playing down the issue and discredit the expert. It's deeply unethical, let alone for a democratic official.

Addition:

McCuaig-Johnston told the committee Thursday that Chinese vehicles are made with products that come from slave labour performed by members of the Uyghur minority.

Ma's suggestion that reports of forced labour amounted to "hearsay" prompted outrage from Conservatives on the committee, one of whom apologized on Ma's behalf.

Ma, in turn, demanded an apology from the MP who offered the apology. - Source

His reaction is very revealing I would say.

[-] ProudCanadianCitizen@lemmy.ca 1 points 48 minutes ago

The Conservatives are very upset that he switched parties, that is obvious. One would wonder what their reaction would be if he were still a conservative.

[-] Paragone@lemmy.world -1 points 19 hours ago

Very true.

Worse, torque is applied to people who're elected, until their entire frame-of-reference is nothing like what normal-people's is.

I knew a guy who lost a federal within-party election ( he didn't become that riding's candidate ), & I told him directly, that I was glad he lost, because after he'd been "lobbied" enough, he wouldn't be him, he'd become fake, as his context/frame-of-reference was replaced by the phony "context" that special-interest-groups wanted him having.

Don't know how he felt about that, but it was true.

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