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It was a surrender of bedrock rule-of-law principles so craven, and such a sabotage of the government he was sworn to represent, that for publicly advocating it as “great for Canada” last January the notoriously Beijing-compliant John McCallum had to be stripped of his diplomatic credentials as ambassador to China.

But that was then. Now, it would seem, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken it on as his own great idea. Put another way, if you thought that after everything that has happened, Canada’s China policy had been finally expunged of the creepy influences exerted by such disgraced Chrétien-era fixtures as John McCallum, you thought wrong. It’s as though McCallum is back, and he’s now writing Trudeau’s scripts.

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You would never know it from the headlines. “Canada to U.S.: Don’t sign China deal until Canadians released.” “Trudeau says he asked U.S. to stall China trade deal until Canadians released.” “Trudeau asks U.S. to not sign China trade deal until Spavor, Kovrig are released.” And on and on.