By Pepper Parr
September 27th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
Many in Burlington have been patiently waiting for the federal government to announce that Terry Fox will be on the next version of the five dollar $5.00 bill. They aren’t ready to announce yet. The wheels turn slowly.
Hopefully they will not be as slow when the Office of the Governor General, where the Order of Canada awards and announcements are made, decide that the two Michael’s are to be made Members of the Order of Canada.
There is a process of course and it has to be followed – but is this not a very special situation ?
Michael Kovrig on the left, Michael Spavor on the right
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor spent more than 1000 days in wretched jail cells, cooped up with others because the Chinese government wanted to force the Canadian government to let one of their citizens return to China. We are not going to name the Chinese citizen – enough attention has been wasted on her.
All she had to do was admit what she eventually did admit she had done.
The Michaels are different – they stood strong during a very hard situation. Now they have to adjust and learn about all the things they missed. Their credit cards have to be renewed; do they have places to live? Do they have jobs? Is their mental health good?
Both men are going to need time to adjust – they will need as much privacy as media and the public in general can give them. In the immediate future though, there is an opportunity for their government to formally recognize their contribution to making this country what it is.
And lets not forget that she was under house arrest living in luxury while our Canadian boys were in hell-holes.
“Sorry to keep you waiting this late, but finally I have come back home,” Ms. Meng said shortly after landing. “After a tortuous more than 1,000 days of waiting I have finally come back to the embrace of my motherland.”
“When I set foot on Chinese soil, I felt the warmth, and I was so thrilled, my motherland, right now I am back to you.”
The above statement from Meng Wanzhou is more than galling..”.her tortuous 1,000 days of waiting in her Vancouver mansion”.
The question now is will the Federal Government follow other countries in banning Huawei technology?
I do not disagree with anything you wrote about the two Michael’s. But to say “All she had to do was admit what she eventually did admit she had done.” is such an over simplification of the then situation.