March 2023 Roundup: France Union strikes, Georgia Protest and Canada and China Election Meddling
Good Morning, Afternoon and Evening,
I never really told you guys much about my exchange to Sweden that I am currently doing, well from January to June, I am doing an exchange at Lund University in Lund, Sweden. I chose Sweden just because back at my home university I took a Swedish language course to fulfil the language requirement for my degree, I enjoyed doing the class as well as the classmates and friends I made there. What swayed me to do an exchange in Sweden was when our professor showed us a Rick Steves Documentary on Sweden. That was the hook line and sinker to do an exchange here.
So I later told my exchange coordinator that I wanted to do an exchange in Sweden. So I applied for it around February and then had to wait until November for my acceptance of my exchange. There was also the annoying process of applying for my study permit, however that is one experience that I don’t want revisit ever again.
After all of that, on January 13th, I finally made it to Sweden. The first few days were tricky as everything from jet lag to time differences as well as some unfriendly locals made it tough to adjust. However, by the second week everything went like a breeze, I was able to make good friends with people in my class as well as those in my residence, while I was busy at times, there were also times where the lack of work or class time in some of my classes, put me in this relaxed state of mind that I haven’t had in a long time.
Many of the perceived stereotypes and notions that I had about Swedes were also torn down as well. A lot of it was that they were very closed in and not receptive to making friends with new people, especially foreigners. There was also the fear that I might face racism in the country due to the new government that was elected in Sweden which is not very welcoming to new immigrants. In the end, I am glad that these fears and stereotypes were diminished as I found that a majority of Swedes are open minded, caring, and I would argue some of them are just as nice as Canadians.
I’ll probably share more of my thoughts in a seperate article, but to sum it I’m glad I decided to go here.
Anyways here are the top stories of March…
#5: Georgia Protests
From March 6th to 10th, many Georgians went out to the streets and outside the Georgian parliament in the capital city of Tbilisi and protested against a law proposed in the Georgian Parliament that would have had organizations be it media outlets or human rights organization to register as foreign agents if 20% of their income came from foreign entities. The bill was proposed by the a faction of the MPs who come from the ruling Georgian Dream party, led by former prime minister of Georgia and billionaire mogul, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili, who founded the party back in 2012, had made most of his money in Russia at a time a country was going through a process of widespread privatization and during his time as prime minister, he moved the country away from it’s ambitions of joining the EU in preference for friendlier ties with Russia.
Critics of the bill say that the bill undermines Georgian democracy and free speech as well as harming the country’s candidacy join the European Union (EU). They also highlighted that the bill was similar to one in Russia which passed in 2012, which is seen one of the signs of the eroding of democracy in the country. The current Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, defended the bill saying it met European and global standards in terms of law. However, that was not how many Georgians as they went on to the streets and faced harsh treatment from the Georgian authorities. Georgia’s President, Salome Zourabichvili, who was in New York City, addressed the country with the statue of liberty behind her, siding with protestors and vowing that she would veto and repeal the bill if it passed parliament.
Criticism also came from the EU and the US as the spokesperson for the US state department, Ned Price, compared the bill to ones proposed in Turkey and Hungary. The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Burrell said that the draft of the bill was “a very bad development”. By contrast Russia, accused the EU and the US for influencing the protests. After ten days of protests the government backed down from passing the bill, however protestors continued to protest as they wanted to send a message to the government that they believe that Georgia’s future is in Europe than closer ties with Russia.
Georgia has had a long history with Russia dating back centuries. The country was once apart of the former Soviet Union and was home to Josef Stalin, the former leader of the Soviet Union and one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century. Georgia would later become an independent country after the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, the first few years were difficult due to gang violence and war breaking out in the the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. War would later resurface back in these regions as Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 over fears that it along with Ukraine would join NATO, the war only lasted for five days, but it was seen as a precursor for some of Russia’s future actions such as the current invasion of Ukraine.
#4: Canada-China election meddling scandal
Allegations of election interfering from China have shook Canadian politics to it’s core as questions grow regarding the Canadian governments handling of the issue. The issue has been mounting after months of reports from news outlets such as the Globe and Mail and Global News reported that sources told them that they found that China had a “clandestine network” of candidates during both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet were reported to have been been informed about these allegations. Allegations have also came up that China has placed agents in the offices of MPs.
The candidates were not named, however they came from both of the country’s political parties, Liberals and Conservatives according to sources who talked to Global News. One of the main focuses of the story were the explosive revelations came out surrounding an MP from the governing Liberal Party, Han Dong, who has faced claims of being “an affiliate to China”. The claims have ranged from Mr. Dong being favoured in a nomination race for a Toronto riding over another candidate, to claims that he suggested to the Chinese Consul General in Toronto to delay the release of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Micheal Spavor because it would be seen as a benefit to the main opposition party, the Conservatives. Both Mr. Dong and the Chinese embassy have denied these claims.
Since then, Mr.Dong has resigned from the Liberal caucus and is suing Global News for defamation. A day after the claims surrounding Dong’s and the case of the two Micheals. Canadian Newspaper, The Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau’s government had reviewed a transcript from Canadian Intelligence agency, CISIS, where they had determined there was “no actionable evidence” surrounding the claim.
Mr. Dong wasn’t the only one to face these claims, two Liberal MPs who were voted in seats where there are big Chinese communities have also faced allegations of influence from the Chinese government in there race. In a podcast, the leader of the Conservative Party, Erin O’ Toole, believed that Chinese meddling played a role in the Conservatives losing 8 to 9 ridings.
Kenny Chiu, an MP for the riding of Steveston-Richmond East, a riding located near Vancouver, supported his claims saying that Chinese meddling played a role in his defeat in the last election to the current Liberal MP, Parm Bains, Mr. Bains has denied the allegation and says that he won his race fair and square, however a local newspaper for Richmond, has noted that he sat beside the Chinese consul general during a charity event as well as during a photo of him pictured with heads of organizations that have been seen as being close to China.
The Mayor of Vancouver, Ken Sim, has also faced allegations that the mayoral race which he won last year, was interfered by China, Mr. Sim has denied the allegations as well and has said, that would like to know if there was any proof of foreign interference and that right now many of the claims are “insinuations”.
All opposition parties are now calling on the government to hold a public inquiry regrading the case of election meddling. The government has however, appointed former Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, as special rapporteur who will have access to classified and unclassified documents and will release a report in May 21st, 2023, on whether there will be a public inquiry into the matter.
While some have supported the decision of Johnston as rappouter, others including the main opposition, Conservatives, and the Bloc Quebecois, have criticized the appointment seeing as being to closely linked to Mr. Trudeau and his membership to the charity, the Trudeau Foundation. Although, Johnston was appointed governor General under the then Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012 and under the direction of the then Prime Minister in 2015, made a state visit to China.
While the visit of US President, Joe Biden and the release of the federal budget put the issue on the backburner for the next few weeks. On April 12th, the CEO and board members of the Trudeau Foundation, a charity named after the former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau which is focused on funding academic and public interest research as well as other academic initiatives, resigned regarding a difficulties of returning a $140,000 donation in 2016 from a businessman who was linked to the Chinese Government.
This has led to calls from the Leader of the Conservatives and the opposition, Pierre Poilievre, for an investigation into what he claimed as the “Beijing funded Trudeau Foundation” and has asked the the countries revenue agency to audit the foundations donations connected to foreign governments. Allan Rock a former cabinet minister who helped with the creation of the foundation in 2002 has accused Poilievre of “ignorant, irresponsible and highly partisan” attacks and that the attacks against the foundation are collateral damage against the foundation.
#3: SVB collapse and Credit Suisse bailout
The Financial Sector was also shook this month as one of the biggest banks in the US, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed due to a run on deposits as people withdrew their money from the banks. This is the second biggest collapse of a bank since 2008, when the fourth largest investment bank in the US, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, which then triggered a crisis in the global financial sector. After the failure of SVB, US regulators immediately stepped up emergency measures including seizing Signature Bank to ease fears that depositors would take more money out of other lenders.
During the pandemic, SVB saw a huge influx of deposits. They used those some of the deposits and made them loans, while they also invested the deposits into securities which were seen as secure. However, the US Federal Reserve’s decision to increase interest rates along with the poor performance of tech stocks last year, led to the bonds falling in value. This led to a huge exodus of deposits leaving the bank which was faster then they expected and the bank announcing that it needed to raise capital.
Investors were concerned about the situation and would later sell their stocks in the bank. Which then led to a huge bank run where people withdrew over 42 billion dollars on March 9th. The next day regulators seized the bank and offered a lending facility which would be a backstop. Federal regulators have promised that customers that are insured or uninsured will get their money back.
Two days later on March 12th, regulators seized another bank, Signature Bank , as it suffered a bank run due to fears from it’s customers over what had happened with SVB. That bank saw over 10 billion dollars of deposits being withdrawn and leading to the third largest bank failure in the US. Another bank that was at fear of collapsing, First Republic Bank, has said that it had received extra money from the Federal Reserve and JP Morgan.
Meanwhile the Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, had also collapsed a few weeks after SVB and Signature Bank. In the past years Credit Suisse had suffered from a multiple number of scandals which are too long to list out so read the Guardian article located on Sources for #4 for more information with regards to that. The bank will now merge with another Swiss bank and competitor, UBS to help insure stability in the financial sector, however, the merger has also tainted Switzerland’s reputation for banking stability.
The Swiss government which had coordinated the merger, is planning to provide more than 122 billion dollars of support from the government and the country’s central bank to UBS and Credit Suisse. The large package of support had angered Swiss politicians on both the left and right as the parliament voted rebuked the governments plans. One MP saying, “If a yes means that we will…calm down some kamikaze bankers and give them a guarantee that the paternal state will bear responsibility next time, then I will vote no.” The leader of the Social Democrats in Switzerland, Cedric Wermuth said, “It is our job to put chains on this monster [the future merged Credit Suisse/UBS] so it can never fool democracy again.”
The Swiss Parliament cannot block the deal however, it can however impose conditions regarding how the money is used. The President of Switzerland, Alain Berset defended the deal, telling parliament that “the government was forced to act, in the interest of the country, the institutions and the national economy.” Meanwhile the US Federal Reserve has already agreed to the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse and that UBS can now buy out Credit Suisse’s US subsidiaries.
While there has been calm in the markets for now and there isn’t much panic in the global financial system as there was in March, there is still concerns about another financial crisis happening and that there is uncertainty on who is going to fail. Eyes will also be on policymakers as an exchange between US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, and Oklahoma Senator, James Lankford, regarding how to prevent large depositors from moving funds out of community banks and into larger banks showed that there is a difficulty regarding the question of further bank failure. (You can watch the exchange in Sources for #4.)
#2: Ukraine Update:
This month was not a big one in terms of what’s happening on the battlefield. Russia is still continuing it’s attacks on infrastructure such as buildings and power plants, but they have not made any gains into Ukrainian land. The same goes for the Ukrainians as they are preparing for a spring offensive which according to experts is likely to happen in the southern region of Zaporzhizia. There has been difficulties in getting the tanks delivered to the war zone as Ukraine has been stressing its allies to speed up the deliveries. Tanks are not the only weapons Ukrainians have been demanding a speedier schedule, but also other weapons which the Ukrainians have been using up at a very fast rate.
The main headline for March in terms of the War in Ukraine has been the ICC’s arrest warrants for Russian President, Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova for forcibly relocating thousands of Ukrainian children from Ukraine to Russia. The ICC says that these actions are a violation of the Geneva Convention which gives legal guidlines to civilians who are living in areas of armed conflict and occupied territories. According to reports many of the children come from areas that are now occupied by Russian troops. The children who were sent to Russia and were assigned Russian passports and were adopted into Russian families. The children were also sent to what the Russian government has called “summer camps”, but are actually reeducation camps where children have been indoctrinated with Russian state propaganda and are trained in how to use military weapons.
The reports regarding the forced abductions, have been verified by Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, The ICC, and the UN Commissioners of Human Rights. The Russian government defends it’s actions saying it is “rescuing the abandoned children from the ravages of war.” In a detailed report from the Yale School of Public Health, found that Russia has a network of 43 camps where Ukrainian children are currently being held. One of the report’s authors, Nathaniel Raymond, said that Russia’s actions were a “clear violation of the fourth Geneva Conventions.”
While it is unlikely that Putin will be arrested given that Russia does not recognize the court. However, the arrest warrant will limit where Putin will go and will give warning to other officials who are vulnerable to prosecution. Heads of state are also not immune to prosecution as seen with the case of the arrest of the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, regarding crimes that had happened in the former state and the war in Kosovo. The question is whether who ever takes the place of Putin after he leaves office is willing to extradite him to the Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is located. There is also the other question of whether countries that are signatories to the ICC will extradite Putin, this is seen in the past case of South Africa in 2008, when the country refused to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant of Sudanese Dictator, Omar Al Bashir, saying it had “no duty under international law and the Rome statute to arrest a serving head of state of a non-state-party (to the ICC) such as Omar al-Bashir.”
Aside from the ICC arrest warrant, another big news that came in March with regards to the war in Ukraine was China’s President, Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia as he met with Putin to show support after the ICC issued its arrest warrant. Xi told Putin in his meeting that China is ready “to stand guard over the world order based on international law”. Xi has faced criticism of providing “diplomatic cover” for its war in Ukraine.
The meeting was also about deepening ties economically with Russia, as it is one of the few countries to not have used sanctions against Russia. Xi had also discussed about the peace plan that China has proposed to end the conflict, while Putin has welcomed China’s role in mediating the conflict, Ukraine has been more cautious saying that they are not ready for peace yet, but has offered China to play a role in the implementation of a peace formula.
#1: France Pension Protests
France has been embroiled in weeks of protests over the pension reforms that its President, Emmanuel Macron, wants to implement. The main source of tension surrounds the raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. Compared with countries like Canada where the retirement age is 65, and the United States where it recently was raised to 67. However, France has had a reputation of protests when it comes to changes with its social security system and labour rights. The reforms will impact those working in the public sector, such as the health service, education and manufacturing. Protestors believe that the pension reforms will make it harder for them to retire and obtain a full pension.
The protests were which were organized by unions have seen thousands across the country come out to show not just anger towards the announced reforms but also towards the Macron presidency which has been unpopular with many voters even after his re-election last year. Things were not much calmer in the French Parliament where MPs from both left wing and far right parties were protesting and drowning out the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne when she was giving her speech. Anger was also seen online, when Macron went on TV to justify his actions, he took off his Rolex watch under the table, and when his hands were back on the table users noticed that his watch was not on his wrist anymore this lead to him being referred to as “the president of the Rich”.
Parties on the left spearheaded by one of it’s leaders, Jean Luc Melenchon, have taken advantage of the issue and have seen their popularity risen in the polls as they have been taping into the anger that many young French people have towards the government. The Far-Right National Front party led by Marine Le Pen has also taken advantage of the issue as she has said that she wants to defend those who are working hard. The hope is that with these protests it will help increase Le Pen’s chances of getting the French Presidency as her party has been increasing there vote ever since she became leader in 2011.
Human rights organizations as well as journalist organizations have criticized the crackdown of the protests as well as the French Police’s treatment of protestors. Macron has not budged on the reforms as he believes that with more people getting older there is less workers, but for many French people who are at the age of 20 to 30, the reforms just makes the outlook for their future more darker as some of them are struggling to climb the economic ladder for a higher position in a company nd their work becomes more precarious than ever before. On April 15th, Macron passed the Pension Reforms and protests still continue in many cities in France.
Sources for #5:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64893359
https://eurasianet.org/foreign-agent-bill-threatens-to-kill-georgias-eu-hopes
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eus-borrell-condemns-georgia-foreign-influence-law-2023-03-07/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eus-borrell-condemns-georgia-foreign-influence-law-2023-03-07/
https://ge.usembassy.gov/ned-price-on-foreign-agents-law/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/world/europe/georgia-protests-russia.html
Sources for #4:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kenny-chiu-parm-bains-foreign-interference-china-1.6797856
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-foundation-china-donation-1.6808272
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ken-sim-csis-report-first-reaction-2023-1.6781523
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservatives-cra-audit-trudeau-foundation-1.6811367
Sources for #3:
https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/11/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-heres-how-and-why-it-happened
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/13/signature-bank-third-biggest-bank-failure-in-us-history.html
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/tax-timeline-credit-suisse-scandals
Sources for #2:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/17/icc-arrest-warrant-vladimir-putin-explainer
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/1/ukraines-missing-children-2
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/20/xi-jinping-vladimir-putin-moscow-ukraine-war
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65030929
Sources for #1:
https://www.dw.com/en/france-to-move-ahead-on-pension-reform-despite-protests/a-64489962
Congrats on your exchange to Sweden. Would love to hear more about your impressions and experiences.
Thanks for the thorough updates, and yes to more about your experiences in Sweden!