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Remember when Canada was back? After the cold, hard, cynical Harper Darkness in foreign policy, we’d have human rights, joy, respect and all good things including a shiny UN Security Council seat. Yeah. They’re having trouble remembering in Hong Kong too.

After months of culpable silence our government finally oozed a statement on the struggle for democracy against the Butchers of Beijing that immediately made you wish they’d shut up again. Instead of praising freedom it told the protesters to pipe down and stop rocking the gravy train.

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Obviously I paraphrase. No official statement could attain such rhetorical clarity let alone the intellectual kind. What our Minister of Foreign Affairs actually burbled, along with “the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission” (the longer the title, the less significant the individual) was “Canada and the European Union recall their close relations with Hong Kong under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle and their strong stake in its continued stability and prosperity. For the last two months, large numbers of citizens have been exercising their fundamental right of assembly. However, there has recently been a rising number of unacceptable violent incidents, with risks of further violence and instability. It is crucial that restraint be exercised, violence rejected and urgent steps taken to de-escalate the situation. Engagement in a process of broad-based and inclusive dialogue, involving all key stakeholders, is essential. Fundamental freedoms, including the right of peaceful assembly, and Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, are enshrined in the Basic Law and in international agreements and must continue to be upheld.” Want that on your monument?