Trudeau environment minister set to visit China for meeting with CCP-controlled eco group

Liberal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault will be in Beijing from August 26 to 31, during which time he is expected to liaise with an environmental group that is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Guilbeault serves as executive vice chairperson at the organization in question, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development,

The Conservative Party has urged Guilbeault to resign from that position, suggesting it presents a clear conflict of interest.

"Not only has China wrongfully detained our citizens and meddled in our democracy but it's now using our good name to burnish its reputation on the environment," Conservative foreign affairs critic and victim of Beijing's intimidation Michael Chong told the Globe and Mail on August 17.

"We need to engage with China," he continued. "We need to indicate our point of view to them, but a Canadian minister of the Crown should not be sitting as executive vice-chairperson and giving it the prestige of Canada’s good name on environmental issues while at the same time China is massively increasing construction of coal-fired plants."

The CCICED mission includes the promotion of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a foreign-investment scheme that critics say puts vulnerable nations in debt so China can exploit their infrastructure.

The executive chairman of this self-proclaimed environmental advisory council is Ding Xuexiang, the number six person of importance in the CPP Politburo who has also served as chief of staff to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.

He's responsible for the imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and helped to organize Beijing's interference in Canadian elections, its spying on a prominent Member of Parliament, and its intimidation of Chinese Canadians.

While the federal government has promised to investigate claims of election interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to initiate a public inquiry.

Trudeau did appoint former Governor General David Johnston as "special rapporteur," a move that was criticized by many Canadians after it was revealed that Johnston was an old and close friend of the Trudeau family and a former board member of the Pierre Trudeau Foundation. He had also surrounded himself with staff who had close links to the Liberal Party of Canada. 

Johnston resigned from his position on June 9 after ceaseless criticism from all opposition parties and much of the Canadian media that could no longer present Johnston as a credible choice to investigate the machinations of the CCP

Guilbeault has also recently made the news over his demands that all provinces achieve a "net zero" electricity grid, a task that is easier for provinces with large reserves of hydroelectric power such as Quebec and Ontario, but more difficult for fossil fuel-producing provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has estimated that the cost of achieving net-zero would be around $400 billion. 

Trudeau has expressed his admiration for China's "basic dictatorship" in the past, and has uttered little criticism of the country that produces 33 percent of the greenhouse gasses in the world today. While western nations bend over backwards to find and utilize more sustainable technology, the Asian superpower has continued to build coal-fired plants and expand its carbon footprint.

Despite the Trudeau government's fixation on "fighting climate change" through a massive carbon tax on gasoline, and an insistence on reaching “net zero emissions,” Canada produces less than 1.5 percent of greenhouse gasses.