Politics Briefing: ‘Today is the end of “one country, two systems"’

Hello,

The crackdown by the Chinese government on Hong Kong has taken another turn. The Beijing-installed chief executive, Carrie Lam, booted four pro-democracy members from the legislative council. In turn, the remaining opposition members have resigned from the council in solidarity with their colleagues.

“Today is the end of ‘one country, two systems’,” said Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democratic Party, in reference to the promise when Hong Kong came under Chinese control that it would retain some measure of democracy.

Meanwhile in Canada, Chinese-Canadian groups say the government should set up a national hotline and a foreign-agent registry to combat the issue of harassment by Chinese government agents.

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

Today is Remembrance Day, the day we honour the women and men who have fought for their countries. The Globe and Mail asked six veterans what they will be reflecting on this year.

The Canadian government is joining the European Union in condemning a Russian-backed conference that seeks to convince refugees to return to Syria before it’s safe to do so.

Leslie Church, the policy director to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, has agreed to an ethics screen concerning her husband, Sheamus Murphy, who regularly lobbies senior officials on behalf of a wide range of corporate clients.

Speakers' Spotlight, an agency that represents some members of the Trudeau family, says it does not have some of the documents the ethics committee requested as part of its WE Charity probe. The company says it routinely purges documents older than seven years, and the disposal of these documents was completed before the WE issue came to light.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and anti-racism advocates say the federal government and police forces need to do more to address the rising threat of white-supremacist organizations.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is suing the RCMP for not responding to a civilian watchdog report from 2017, which has had the effect of barring the report from public release.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, another public-health epidemic that is getting overshadowed is the rising number of opioid deaths.

The federal government is working out the complex task of how to distribute tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccines once one is approved.

Most Senate committees aren’t meeting because the Independent Senators Group and the Conservatives can’t agree on whether some meetings could be held virtually.

And the Republican Party is getting increasingly consumed with U.S. President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories contesting the results of last week’s election. The latest significant lawsuit by the Trump campaign alleges Pennsylvania’s system for mail-in ballots is against the U.S. Constitution.

Donald Maracle and Arthur Cockfield (The Globe and Mail) on the contributions of Indigenous soldiers: “While exact numbers are unknown, hundreds or possibly thousands of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people fought with the British Crown and local militias in the pre-Confederation era, when the fate of the future country was on a knife’s edge. With respect to 20th-century conflicts, Veteran Affairs Canada estimates that 12,000 Indigenous peoples fought in the Canadian Armed Forces, mainly in the First and Second World War.”

Avvy Go and Gary Yee (The Globe and Mail) on racism in Canada: “The pandemic has exposed how deep-seated anti-Chinese racism is in Canada. Across the country, social media has been flooded with heart-wrenching reports of verbal and physical attacks on Chinese-Canadians and other Asian-Canadians.”

John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on why world leaders are rushing to congratulate Biden: “For the West, a Biden presidency represents the best hope for restoring relations shaken to their core by President Trump’s singularly transactional America First strategy.”

Frida Ghitis (CNN) on Trump’s refusal to concede in the U.S. election: “By now, we know exactly who Trump is. He lied from the day he came to office, and he’s doing it again on his way out in hopes that he will personally benefit. That is hardly a surprise. What is still surprising is that so many Republicans who were once honourable public servants have chosen to join his attack on American democracy."

Jack Shafer (Politico) on the seeming breakup of Trump and Fox News: “It’s true that Fox propped Trump up when other networks were treating him as a novelty, reliably televising his stemwinder speeches and letting his proxies spin away his blatant untruths and off-the-cuff insults. And it’s true that Fox was proud to have the president as Viewer Number One, taking his calls and often seemingly broadcasting directly to his bedroom TV. That all makes it easy to forget that Trump was never Murdoch and Fox’s first choice for president in 2016, or even their second.”

Andrew Coyne (The Globe and Mail) on what Trump could do next: “The campaign did not end on Nov. 3; it has simply entered a new phase. The point is not to win over the courts or even most of the public. It’s strictly about the base. Once you have persuaded tens of millions of Americans that the bedrock institutions of their democracy are corrupt, that everyone is lying to them and nothing is a fact, there’s not much you can’t do.”

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