Treason's Desolate Hillside

On Han Dong

Let’s start with the one thing I feel very safe in saying: if Han Dong advised the Chinese to not release the Two Michaels, as Global is reporting today, he needs to be thrown in jail for a very, very long time. Doing so would not just be an abdication of a collective sense of patriotism and collective duty (and frankly an absurd understanding of Canadian politics to think releasing the Michaels would help Erin O’Toole and the CPC), but it’s treason. Conspiring with an outside country to influence domestic politics was treason when Donald Trump tried it in Ukraine 4 years ago, and it’s treason now.

It might not meet the legal definition of treason, because for some reason we have an overly restrictive set of definitions, but it’s certainly a violation of Canadian law to aid a foreign entity, and if Dong did so, he should face all punishment available to him. I don’t think anyone could possibly disagree with that.

The Prime Minister’s Office has denied knowing about the conservation between Dong and the Chinese Consular General until Global told them and I believe them. They wanted the Two Michaels back, both for policy reasons (getting Canadians back from foreign detention is the goal of all Canadian governments) but also politically, because then “Trudeau’s too weak to get the Two Michaels back” would have no longer been a useable attack line against them.

But here’s my question: if we believe Global, we’ve had a traitor in our Parliament for the last 3 years, and for the last two CSIS has had proof. So, once again, I’m asking: is CSIS leaking innuendo as fact or is the RCMP not doing their jobs properly?

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This is yet another serious allegation of gross misconduct by someone in and around Canadian politics by a news organization, and one that if true is the kind of thing that should end careers and result in long prison sentences. And yet, as of right now, there’s no evidence that anyone who has arrest powers believes it to be true.

Selfishly, I’d like Global to report more details – what their sources are basing their conclusions on, namely – but let’s for the moment assume that they have a wiretap of the conversation and they have full evidence that he told the Chinese Consular General not to release the Two Michaels. Let’s put aside the purported logic for now, and let’s accept that the story is airtight. Why would the RCMP – remember, the people who have arrest power in all of this? – sit on this for two years?

If we give the intelligence the benefit of the doubt, this is clear and obvious police failure and every single person at the RCMP needs to be fired immediately. Everyone. Literally every single person. I’m not opposed to doing that anyways, if we’re being honest (insert every RCMP scandal of the last four decades), but that would be such a catastrophic failure of policing such that the consequences would have to be indescribably huge.

But, given that that theory has some holes, and Global hasn’t actually reported much in the way of details, let’s look at the other alternative. Given Global didn’t report the nature of the conversation – phone, Zoom, or in person – nor the nature of the evidence they’re relying on – wiretaps, a spy in the Chinese consulate, or something less substantive – we have no way of knowing. But if they have it cold, why is Han Dong still a free man?

If CSIS has it down cold – a legitimate wiretap that clearly has him saying what he is alleged to have said – then why isn’t Han Dong already in handcuffs many many months ago? Why is he still on Parliament Hill this week? Again, either the RCMP have royally fucked this up, or CSIS doesn’t have enough to convince the RCMP to arrest him, and the Crown to prosecute. But, if Global had enough to publish such a story, don’t you think it’d be locked down?

(In fairness, I don’t think the logic going around left wing Twitter/my mentions – that releasing the Two Michaels would help the Liberals, not the Cons – invalidates the reporting. The allegation is that Dong advised China to not release them because of his assessment that it would help the Cons. The fact that that assessment is moronic does not stop it from being his assessment, as the litany of incredibly dumb things politicians in Canada and abroad have believed would be electorally successful that weren’t proves.)

The problem with all of this is that no matter who you believe, at least one of the security services, the RCMP, and Global News have completely and utter shit the bed. Either Global is correct, CSIS handed over the evidence to the RCMP and the RCMP sat on it, in which case the RCMP need to be blown up. Global might be publishing accurate allegations in the same way I can say the allegations against OJ Simpson were accurate, but there’s not enough for a prosecution because of CSIS fuckups or incompetence, or Global is fucking up and publishing essentially innuendo as fact.

I don’t know which of those three it is, but we have a situation where an MP is being accused of very serious crimes and there’s been two years where he hasn’t been arrested for them. If the allegations are true, it’s a fucking disgrace he’s been allowed to sit in the Commons, vote on our laws, and serve this country in Parliament. If it’s not, and Global’s fucked this up, this is becoming a Sorkin-level Operation Genoa level failure that will end the way that show should have, with everyone involved losing their jobs.

I don’t invoke patriotism much in these pages because I don’t like abstract concepts and I don’t think blindness to any institution is a good thing, and our country is an institution amongst any other. But this, this actually angers me as a patriotic Canadian. I love this country, and the idea that an MP betrayed us kills me. I’ve told this before but I used to take days off from high school to go watch Parliamentary Proceedings, especially when I was especially depressed or especially hurting.

Going downtown, sitting in the hallowed south gallery of the House, was my dream, and the fact I got to watch Mulcair go at Harper multiple times has undeniably saved my life. I feel protective of the House, on the floor of which I sat for a Model Parliament in 2016. If someone has disgraced himself while serving, he deserves all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that are becoming him.

All I know is someone’s fucked up. Either this story is true and the RCMP have protected a traitor, or Global just defamed an innocent man by trusting bad intelligence.

May we not have the law’s delay.