Markham, SEP 7, 2021
Mimi Lee, the Markham-Thornhill MP Candidate of the Green Party, reinstates her stand regarding the case on Huawei executive Meng Wenzhou. On July 15, 2021, the Green Party of Canada issued a statement to demand the US government to release Meng, stating that ex-president Donald Trump had abused the extradition treaty for gains in trade talk at the time. Mimi Lee strongly disagrees with this statement.
Say with evidence
“As leaders, we have to be responsible for what we say. As the case was (and still is) in court, no one should have made comments on the case,” says Mimi, “If Meng is found guilty by the court, the actions of requesting extradition and putting Meng behind bars will have been legitimate, not abusive. And we shall see.”
Human lives are not goods, not for trade
Human lives and freedom are not commodities to be traded. Instead, we should be using trade and economics as tools to hold countries accountable for human rights violations. In this case, specifically, we should not tolerate the veiled threat implicit in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s offer that, “if Meng is released, our Canadians will be safe.” Such an offer is contrary to our values, and deeply untrustworthy. Firstly, as a nation that values human rights, we should not support an offer to “trade” lives. As stated, human lives are not commodities. Secondly, the CCP government has a very poor track record in terms of these promises. We predict that, if the Canadian government does not stand firm against China, even if Meng is released, our two Michaels and other Canadians would remain in China’s possession. This “deal” simply isn’t worth the risk.
We should support Greens even more
With all that said, we should embrace the Green Party even more. Why? Because the Green Party is a party that respects different voices, and every single one of the Greens can have their own opinion on an issue. We may not agree on everything, but we can walk together. That is how the Greens work. Most importantly, the Green Party does not whip their MPs and MPPs, which means the Green members you’ve chosen to represent you, the constituency, are truly representing you to vote in the Parliament and the Provincial Council. Other parties? As you can see from the Parliament and Provincial voting history, their MPs and MPPs voted on the same side most of the time, following the party’s will rather than the people’s.
Choosing Green is the wise choice
This is it. Your Green MP is truly representing you. In the same way that I, Mimi Lee, can have different views as the party’s foreign affairs critic, and remain a respected member, you too can disagree with the party line and still be meaningfully represented within our platform. Don’t hesitate. Choose Green, bring your voice into the Parliament and make real changes.
###