Canada's chief imperialist rises to position of Finance Minister, after Morneau's resignation
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Written by: Aidan Jonah
Chrystia Freeland’s rise in the halls of power continues on.
Yesterday, Toronto Centre MP and former Finance Minister Bill Morneau resigned from parliament.
Morneau was, while very clearly implicated in the WE Charity scandal, the scapegoat for the Trudeau government’s ethical failings. Both Trudeau and Morneau failed to disclose their close family connections to the WE Charity, which was given $900 million to pay volunteers below minimum wage, in exchange for helping out eligible charities during a global pandemic.
Morneau received $41000 to cover expenses from a WE Charity related trip, and refused to pay this amount back to WE until pressured to do so by opposition members of a parliament committee holding hearings on the scandal. Morneau’s daughter, Grace Acan, worked for WE Charity, and he failed to disclose this, as he gave WE Charity a $3 million CAD contract in 2019.
Tensions had flared up in the past few days, as the PMO launched proxy attacks on Morneau through anonymous sources in mainstream Canadian media outlets. This went on for days, until Morneau resigned to “run for the Secretary General position of the OCED”.
It is clear that Morneau has been thrown under the bus by Trudeau, in hopes of stopping the damage which the WE Scandal is doing to his government’s popularity. Further proof of this intention was shown, when Trudeau announced today that he would be seeking permission of the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until October, during the middle of a global pandemic. This would shut down all bills that were in the process of being passed through parliament, and would shutter all ongoing committees, including the ongoing investigation into the WE Charity scandal.
Freeland’s ascent to power
Chrystia Freeland was originally elected to parliament in a 2013 by-election. From 2015 to 2017, she served as the Minister of International Trade.
Since 2017, Freeland’s political ascent within the Liberal government has moved at a rapid pace. That year, she was announced as Canada’s new Foreign Minister once Stephane Dion, who attempted to establish positive relations with Russia, was forced out by Trudeau. The US State Department reacted to this by stating that “Canada has adopted an America first policy”. This would turn out to be eerily true.
In her time as Foreign Minister, Canada consistently voted against UN resolutions which validate Palestinian rights while supporting US-backed coup attempts in Venezuela, Bolivia and many more countries around the world. Freeland led the creation of the Lima Group in 2017, a front group for the United States’ putsch to overthrow the democratically elected socialist leader, Nicholas Maduro. She played a crucial role in the attempt to install opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s new President, even speaking with him in secret two weeks before the coup attempt began.
Canada also supported the Unites States’ vicious sanctions agenda against any country which opposes its imperialist agenda. This includes attempts to suffocate the Venezuelan, Iranian and many other countries’ economies, in the hopes of sparking civil unrest to exploit, and place a US friendly leader in charge.
Meanwhile, Canada also began to ramp up its presence in NATO under Freeland’s watch. In 2017, 450 troops went to Latvia as Canada became the “enhanced Forward Presence” lead Framework Nation, consisting of 1138 troops from NATO nations. This came at a cost of $134 million per year to Canadian taxpayers.
Freeland also shares the American desire to crush the growth of Hauwei, and block its 5G network from being implemented, in favour of utilising the technology of Western companies. Bruce Katz wrote,
“Freeland’s endorsement of the Trump administration’s insistence on having Meng Wanzhou, CEO of Huawei, extradited from Canada to the U.S on charges of commercial involvement with Iran (although Canada has no such law governing its own actions) that has led to the current legal and political quagmire from which Justin Trudeau refuses to extricate his government.”
That was nothing but a pretext for Washington to use as leverage against China in its quest to block the latter’s access to the North American and European markets for its 5G network technology. There appears to be ample evidence of collusion between CSIS and the FBI as regards the case of Meng Wanzhou. (1)”
Freeland is a far-right Ukrainian nationalist who glorifies Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, including her grandfather, Michael Chomiak. She’s also a war hawk with a clear hatred for Russia, stretching back to her journalism days in Russia, back in 1989.
In 2018, she promised that Canada would try to serve as an “asset to Israel,” if elected to a non-permanent UNSC Seat in 2020. Freeland emphasized her support for Israel’s continuing military occupation and annexations in the same interview, with CJ News.
In late 2019, Freeland made clear Canada’s support for the coup being launched by christo-fascist paramilitaries against Evo Morales. Two days after extreme right-wing senator Jeanine Anez became the president of Bolivia’s coup regime, Canada declared its support for the regime.
In an egalitarian society, this record would lead to a one-way trip out of politics forever. However, in Canada, this led to a promotion. Freeland became Canada’s Deputy Minister, and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, after the Liberals secured a minority government in the 2019 election.
Since the election, Freeland has continued with her imperialist foreign policy focus. She was a key figure in Canada’s failed UNSC seat campaign, and continued to justify both Canada’s support for Israeli apartheid, along with the multi-billion dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia.
Now Chrystia Freeland is both the Finance Minister, and the Deputy Prime Minister. She is ascending the political ladder within the Liberal party at a rapid rate. At this pace, there is a very high chance that if elections don’t occur until 2023, she will be the Liberal leader by that point. This is a very worrying thought.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news site founded in 2019. He has written about Canadian imperialism, federal politics, and left-wing resistance to colonialism across the world for Canadian Dimension, Palestine Chronicle, the Orinoco Tribune and Dissident Voice. He is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism student at Ryerson University, who was the Head of Communications and Community Engagement for Etobicoke North NDP Candidate Naiima Farah in the 2019 Federal Election.
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