Alberta
China’s ban on Canadian beef still in place year-and-a-half later; industry in dark
CALGARY — A Chinese ban on Canadian beef that industry officials expected would be short-lived remains in place 17 months later, and industry representatives say they remain in the dark about the reasons.
China has been blocking beef shipments from Canadian processing plants ever since an atypical case of BSE, or mad cow disease, was found on an Alberta farm in December of 2021.
At the time, Canadian officials expressed little concern that the case would have lasting market impacts. Atypical BSE develops spontaneously in about one in every one million cattle and unlike the classic BSE strain — which has been linked to the fatal neurological disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — it poses no health risk to humans and is not transmissible.
While most of Canada’s trading partners did not respond with any form of trade restrictions after the discovery of the case, South Korea and the Philippines joined China in suspending beef imports from this country.
However, both South Korea and the Philippines lifted the restrictions less than two months later, while China — which in 2021 was Canada’s third-largest beef export market, importing $193 million worth of product — has still not resumed trade.
“Most countries do not close when you find an atypical case,” said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president for the Canadian Cattle Association.
“It’s just a few that did and you know, all those other countries opened up fairly quickly. So yeah, really the outlier here is China.”
Adding to the confusion, Laycraft said, is the fact that both Brazil and Ireland have also recently had their beef blocked by China due to cases of atypical BSE in those countries. But China has resumed beef trade with both of those countries, and it took only a short time — in the case of Brazil, only four weeks.
Laycraft said he doesn’t know what the sticking point is when it comes to Canada, adding only that he doesn’t believe there is a scientific explanation.
“We’re pretty confident all of the technical requirements and information that was needed has been provided, to allow the decision to reopen,” he said.
“We certainly don’t believe there’s, on that side, any reason for it not to be. They just, you know, haven’t responded.”
In 2019, China blocked canola shipments from two major Canadian companies, not long after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested by Canadian authorities. That ban lasted for three years.
Tensions between Canada and China have recently ratcheted up again, with the Canadian government on Monday expelling Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, alleging he was involved in a plot to intimidate Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.
The renewed tensions have even led the canola industry to express concern that China will retaliate to Canada’s expulsion of its diplomat by blocking agricultural shipments.
But Gordon Houlden, director emeritus of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said the beef industry’s ongoing issue demonstrates that some of Ottawa’s trade challenges with Beijing are pre-existing.
“Some people are jumping to the wrong conclusions and because of this latest exchange, the question of the diplomatic expulsions, they assume that it’s going to immediately lead to a whole series of further restrictions,” Houlden said.
“But some of these problems go back a long way.”
Houlden said it’s not abnormal for China to move slowly on the regulatory front, due to a combination of “bureaucracy and lethargy.” He added that China is not always keen to wield trade as a weapon because it is a major exporter itself and knows such tactics can backfire.
However, he said the fact that China has lifted similar restrictions against beef imports from other countries suggests that at some level, politics is likely playing a role in the delay. Houlden added that while it’s hard to know for certain what China’s motivation is on any given issue, it’s fair to say that Canada’s current relationship with China is frosty enough that Beijing is unlikely to make an effort to fast-track the beef issue.
“I think we can surmise that right now politics is not in a position to help solve the problem, and in fact may be part of the problem,” Houlden said.
Laycraft said during the year-and-a-half that the Chinese market has been closed, the Canadian beef industry has seen increasing sales into Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries. He said this has been due in large part to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement between Canada and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We’d like to see things get back on a more normal track with China. We had some really good customers there that we were starting to build relationships with,” Laycraft said.
“At the same time, we’re doing very well in other markets in Asia … So we’re not in the same vulnerable position that potentially other products from Canada are.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2023.
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
From LifeSiteNews
A judge ruled that businesses impacted by COVID lockdowns are allowed to claim compensation for harm and losses incurred due to the provincial chief medical officer’s illegal orders.
A class-action lawsuit on behalf of dozens of Canadian business owners in Alberta who faced massive losses or permanent closures due to COVID mandates has been given the go-ahead to proceed by a judge.
Lawyers representing businesses from Alberta-based Rath & Company announced in a press release on October 30 that it was “successful in its application for certification on behalf of Alberta business owners impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and closures imposed through Chief Medical Officer of Health (“CMOH”) Orders.”
“Justice Feasby of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta released his decision today certifying the class action in Ingram v Alberta, 2024 ABKB 631,” Rath & Company said.
Lead counsel Jeffrey Rath said the Alberta government has been placed on notice for its actions against businesses during the COVID lockdown era.
The Rath lawsuit proposal names Rebecca Ingram, a gym owner, and Chris Scott, a restaurant owner, as “representative plaintiffs who suffered significant financial harm due to (former Alberta Chief Medical Officer) Dr. (Deena) Hinshaw’s Public Health Orders.”
According to Rath, the class action seeks to certify that “affected Alberta business owners who suffered losses due to the CMOH orders, which were found to be ultra vires — outside legal authority and therefore unlawful — under Alberta’s Public Health Act (“PHA”).
“As a result, the Court Certified multiple claims, including negligence, bad faith and misfeasance in public office. The Court allowed affected businesses to claim compensation for harm and losses incurred due to the illegal CMOH Orders including punitive damages,” Rath said.
Any business operator in Alberta from 2020 to 2022 who was negatively impacted by COVID orders is now eligible to join the lawsuit. Any payout from the lawsuit would come from the taxpayers.
The government’s legal team claimed that the COVID orders were put in place on a good faith initiative and that it was Alberta Health Services, not the government, that oversaw enforcement of the rules.
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench’s Ingram v. Alberta decision cast into doubt all cases involving those facing non-criminal COVID-related charges in the province, allowing the class action to get this far.
As a result of the court ruling, Alberta Crown Prosecutions Service (ACPS) said Albertans facing COVID-related charges will not be convicted but instead have their charges stayed.
Thus far, Dr. Michal Princ, pizzeria owner Jesse Johnson, Scott, and Alberta pastors James Coates, Tim Stephens, and Artur Pawlowski, who were jailed for keeping churches open under then-Premier Jason Kenney, have had COVID charges against them dropped due to the court ruling.
Under Kenney, thousands of businesses, notably restaurants and small shops, were negatively impacted by severe COVID restrictions, mostly in 2020-21, that forced them to close for a time. Many never reopened. At the same time, as in the rest of Canada, big box stores were allowed to operate unimpeded.
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.
“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.
The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”
Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”
Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.
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