EDITORIAL: We’re cozying up to China, again

Last week we learned that Canada's new "strategic partnership" with China includes resuming talks with their military after eight years.

Except we didn't learn it from the Canadian government but from a release by China's defence ministry reported by China's state-run media.

The feds responded to media inquiries by claiming the resumption of these meetings – this one held on Sept. 4 — was no big deal because it was standing operating procedure between China and Canada prior to 2018.

Except that was when Canada/China relations went into a deep freeze after China kidnapped and jailed Canada's two Michaels – Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – and held them for 1019 days during the Meng Wanzhou affair.

It was also before Canada's foreign interference inquiry identified China as the leading state perpetrator of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections, along with numerous other subversive activities.

It was also before Prime Minister Mark Carney described China as Canada's greatest security threat on April 17, 2025, prior to announcing a new "strategic partnership" with China nine months later during a trade mission to Beijing on January 16, 2026, an ideological pivot worthy of the "The Party" in George Orwell's 1984.

The fact the Carney government didn't inform the public of this, nor Parliament, which is still shuttered despite the Prime Minister having declared we're in a trade war with the U.S., is alarming.

Particularly as it comes in the wake of Carney's announcement in Beijing that the RCMP and China's feared Ministry of Public Security are now co-operating on criminal investigations, the terms of which are contained in a secret memorandum of understanding.

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The Conservatives have rightly called out the Carney government for this latest revelation that Canadian and Chinese military officials have resumed meetings.

As Conservative defence critic James Bezan and foreign affairs critic Eric Duncan wrote in an open letter to Carney:

"We will not stand up for our sovereignty or our values by working with a government that has kidnapped our people, interfered with our elections, dropped surveillance buoys in our Arctic waters and set up secret police stations on Canadian soil."

Indeed, if it's all such a great idea, why did the Carney government want to keep it a secret?