I suspected that the Conservatives were full of crap when it came to their little tussle with the Chinese regarding ameeting with their President, but I couldn't prove it. As I noted in the comments to this post, something was fishy about the whole affair.
I am tempted to say the whole thing was stage-managed to make Harper look good, especially since a meeting is now suddenly back on again. Still, I have no proof of that, only deep suspicions.
Now we have proof that you can really never be too suspicious of the actions of this pack of liars.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's churlish rhubarb with the parliamentary press gallery went a few steps too far this past weekend when, on a trip to Hanoi, Harper allowed an utterly false reporting of the status of his meetings with Chinese leader Hu Jintao to remain on the public record for 14 hours.The falsehood appears to have emanated directly from Harper's entourage, which continued to tell reporters that the Harper-Hu meeting was off, even though the two men had, in fact, already met. It was only after the Chinese officials gave details of the meeting that the Prime Minister's aides owned up that, indeed, the two had met and discussed some key points of friction, including trade and human rights.
This was not a question of going out of their way to correct reporters who had overstated what they did or did not know. This was failing to correct misinformation that had emanated from the Prime Minister's Office. This obfuscation of events unfolding at the APEC summit in Vietnam steps over the fine line between managing the government's communications strategy and deliberately allowing the public to be misled.
Whatever one feels about Harper's contempt for the media, it is wholly unacceptable that some government officials appear to have actively engaged in misinformation.
Is anyone surprised that a Prime Minister so obssessed with information control would eventually resort to simply putting our disinformation? Is anyone surprised that man who slavishly emulates his Republican mentors would eventually adopt this signature tactic of theirs?
The bottom line for Harper now is that everything he does must be viewed through a prism of disinformation. I have always looked for the hidden agenda in whatever Harper did, but this little bit of kabuki shows that he is making dishonesty and disinformation a communications tool of his goverment, not merely a personal philosophy. Consider: he and his entourage lied about a diplomatic slight to buff up Harper's bona fides on human rights, when the meeting had already happened. It is one thing for Harper to play his fellow Canadians for patsies, but in this case, he maligned a powerful foreign government and trading partner, simply to make himself look good. Is it just me, or is that a staggering display of poor judgment that could put Canadians at risk for retaliation? How willing will the Chinese be to listen to our demands for human rights when they're being set up to play cartoon villains by our Prime Minister?
One particularly appalling aspect to this affair has been the lack of coverage of this issue by the national press. Other than the Edmonton Journal editorial reprinted in the Toronto Star, I have seen nothing on Harper's dishonest manoeuvre in the print media or on the television news.
Our Prime Minister has just revealed himself to be a fundamentally dishonest man. Isn't that something Canadians should be made aware of?
And then there's this:
China's top diplomat in Canada says nothing is achieved in improving relations between the two countries by "standing on rooftops and pointing fingers."
And a little more on the same story here
The two men met informally at a reception, but it was unclear whether Harper raised human rights issues....
Shemin emphasized that China still regards Canada as a friend, and went on to praise the actions of previous governments in bringing the nations closer.
There are ways of dealing with China on issues like this. Climbing on a soapbox with a megaphone and grandstanding for the domestic audience isn't one of them.
One would think they would be unable to get away with this, but the lack of coverage would seem to indicate otherwise. Look at Adam Daifallah's sycophantic coverage of this issue, or indeed any of the Blogging Bedwetters, who have loudly praised Harper for taking on the Chinese.
There's one thing I can say, honestly: "churlish rhubarb" is my pick for quip of the week.
It would be a good name for a band.
I think it's a well established fact that Harper has his head buried so far up Bush's arse that it will never see daylight again.
China is the Excited States major financial banker so,we all know that Bush would never do anything to upset the apple cart
Have A Good One,
The Rounder.
OK, now this is serious stuff, thank you very much for documenting it like this Tim, this blog's work on the dishonesty of this government's communications policy is one of the main reasons I refer to it as much as I do in my own writings at Saundrie, let alone read and comment here. This is naked deception revealed, and you are right that something really smells that this is not making more news coverage than it has via one editorial edited in one reprint in two papers. They knew the meeting happened and lied about it for no good reason that I can see only partisan political ones which is not an acceptable basis for such deception from government. It would have been one thing if there had been some sort of security reason, or that there was an agreement that needed some little time to be started upon prior to public disclosure, that sort of thing. This though, this was blatant lying on the world stage about international affairs dealing with one of the most powerful countries on the planet!
Thanks Tim, I expect I will be referring back to this post over the following months, I know I am going to bookmark it for such.
Yo rounder:
Whilst merrily surfin in a chat room the other day I was speaking to an American from Kentucky.
She made almost the same comment upon our Glorious Leader as you: "I think it's a well established fact that Harper has his head buried so far up Bush's arse that it will never see daylight again"
Perhaps when we invade and seize all the prime real estate on the sunshine coast we should make her our Imperial Potentate.
croghan27