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After seven years of seeing nothing wrong with the People’s Republic of China sponsoring a boozy reception at its annual convention, the Union of B.C. Municipalities is pondering the optics, if not the ethics, of allowing a foreign government such cheap and easy access to a wide swath of decision makers.

But it’s Canada’s educational leaders who have led the way. For more than 15 years, provincial governments, school trustees and administrators have been taking annual junkets to China where they are feted by government and party officials. Worse, they’ve allowed the Chinese government-controlled Confucius Institute to install teachers and teaching materials in our publicly funded schools and host students on all-expenses paid trips.

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They’ve continued to do so even though some educators, parents and even the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have raised alarms about a foreign government and, potentially, spies being given such privileged access to both young students and those at the top research institutions in our country.