Opinion

The Canadian government needs to start being honest with itself and farmers. Talking a tougher game would be a great start.

China has hijacked the Canadian canola industry. Until someone proves to me otherwise I will continue to say that China’s cancellation of a major grain company’s export license is political. Pretending that this is somehow a technical issue is intellectually dishonest. What’s more, yesterday we learned that it’s more than just one company’s license — the Canola Council of Canada has informed the industry that Chinese importers are “unwilling” to purchase Canadian canola seed at this time.

The “Richardson issue” has now become an industry issue and farmers are and should be growing very concerned.

Last week in Saskatoon, Trade diversification minister, Jim Carr was interviewed by RealAgriculture’s, Dale Leftwich.

“We see this as a science-based issue. The Chinese say that shipments of canola from Canada are not pure, and we say, ‘show us.'”

What Carr really means to say but won’t is that the Chinese are acting like gangsters. We have two Canadians unlawfully detained to prove it.

The Canadian government maintaining that this is a technical issue does not even follow the line of facts. This is Canada being stereotypically nice. What is the downside of calling this what it is — China is acting like a mobster?

Richardson’s themselves has said that this issue is political.

CFIA says that they have not detected anything wrong with the samples.

China is being quite unclear about the issue. China’s lack of transparency alone should make you skeptical.

I will grant you this. If this a technical issue, the path to resolution is much more clear and could lead to a quicker conclusion.

The path to resolution on the politics of this will not be easy. It involves extradition, Chinese executive royalty, and an American president that doesn’t seem to care about the situation he has put Canada in. I mean, this White House still has not lifted the section 232 tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum because he still believes Canadian steel is a national security threat. These tariffs are still in place even after the USMCA was negotiated in good faith.

Whether it’s Saudi Arabia, China or even the U.S., we have become an easy target and political fodder for governments looking to leverage domestic issues. This is extremely concerning.

Even though Canada has limited power moves with China, at least we could be talking a tougher game. If only Trudeau was willing to talk tough to China like he allegedly did with former cabinet ministers behind the scenes.