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Trudeau taps career diplomat Jennifer May to be Canada’s new ambassador to China

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OTTAWA — A career diplomat with three decades of experience in foreign service was named Canada’s ambassador to China Friday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Jennifer May, who most recently spent three years as the ambassador to Brazil, will fill the job in China that has been vacant now for nine months.

“A dedicated public servant, Ms. May’s many years of diverse experience on international missions, and her deep understanding of Asia, will serve to manage this important bilateral relationship and advance Canadian interests in China,” Trudeau said in a written statement.

May joined the Foreign Affairs Department in 1990, and after learning Mandarin, started four years as a mid-level diplomat in 2000 followed by stints in Hong Kong and Thailand. She has also served overseas in Germany and Austria.

Her appointment comes as Canada is looking to scrape the ice off its chilly relationship with China after the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig one year ago.

But the government is making clear her orders also include “advancing Canada’s work” to stand up for “democratic values, human rights and the rule of law.”

Global Affairs Canada has what it refers to in its current departmental plan, an “evolving China policy framework” that will be set up within the broader development of a total Indo-Pacific strategy.

The departmental plan says Canada will use the framework to advance trade interests, but will “challenge the government of China when values and interests diverge and co-operate where interests align.”

“Canada will continue to speak out against China’s repression of the Uyghur and Tibetan peoples, and of all religious minorities in China,” reads the plan, which was published earlier this year.

The last two ambassadors to China were both considered high-level political appointees. First former cabinet minister John McCallum and then business executive Dominic Barton, the latter tasked by Trudeau with the delicate but critical file to get Spavor and Kovrig freed.

Barton left the post last December, three months after they were released. Spavor, a business consultant who was working in China, and Kovrig, a former diplomat who was working in China for the International Crisis Group, were arrested in December 2019.

Canada believes their arrests were political retaliation because Canadian authorities arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

The U.S. accused her and Huawei of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. Kovrig and Spavor were arrested days after Meng was taken into custody in Vancouver. The two men were released as part of a deal when the U.S. agreed to let Meng return to China.

The dispute did serious harm to Canada-China relations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2022.

 

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

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‘No happy paintings’: Dozens of art works by Canadian war artist at Calgary exhibit

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CALGARY – There’s a darkness in the work of venerated Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell, who has spent three decades travelling the world as a self-described silent witness.

MacDonnell’s paintings document the impact of conflict from Bosnia to Afghanistan as well as revisiting atrocities of the past.

He has inspired other artists to follow in his footsteps, and an exhibit of his work is on display at the Military Museums in Calgary through Remembrance Day and into 2025.

“Bill’s very much into the idea of watching, very quietly. You don’t see many people in his works,” said curator Dick Averns, who has met and written about MacDonnell, and was inspired to travel to the Middle East as part of the Canadian Forces War Artists Program.

“A lot of Bill MacDonnell’s work is around the theme of cultural amnesia. They draw attention to histories that are in danger of being forgotten.”

Averns said it was MacDonnell’s example that encouraged him to apply.

“My drive was to have that first-hand experience. My theory in making the art and having a critical eye similar to Bill’s is ‘What are the unseen areas?’ I was interested in relationships between oil, the war in Iraq and 9/11.”

Lt.-Col. Bill Bewick, now retired from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, had taken over as commander of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment when he took MacDonnell to Croatia with the United Nations Protective Force in 1994.

“He’d been over to Europe and various places before, but I think that was his first combat experience,” said Bewick, who took art lessons from MacDonnell years later at what was then called the Alberta College of Art and Design.

“We found a stone building that collapsed with old people and some others incapacitated in it.

“It was a low priority to dig the people out because they were all deceased and we saw that, and the odours associated with that. Those kind of experiences for an artist are pretty intense.”

MacDonnell went back on his own a few months later and visited Sarajevo.

MacDonnell could not be reached for an interview and was unable to attend the opening of his exhibit.

Of the two dozen paintings on display, many depict the aftermath of war with destroyed buildings.

His 1995 painting “Mined Churchyard” show a bombed Serbian church in Bosnia.

“They’re all rather depressing. They’re not happy paintings. There’s no happy paintings,” said Bewick.

“There’s a couple with colour. There’s a nice green grass over there but there’s some other stuff that’s not so happy.”

Averns said the two patches of colour are both of mass graves from eastern Europe and Kyiv when it was part of the former Soviet Union.

In Babi Yar, almost 34,000 Jews were murdered and dumped in a ravine by the Nazis in 1941 as they made their way through Europe.

“They were either shot at the edge of the ravine or they were marched in to lie one on top of the other and shot in the back of the neck,” said Averns.

The mass grave is now a memorial site.

“There was no marker at this site for decades. You can see (on the canvas) here one of the monuments — a ramp with tumbling figures meeting their demise as they went down into the ravine.”

Averns said the second painting shows the mass graves commemorating the German siege of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days and saw 800,000 deaths.

The exhibit is MacDonnell’s first in Western Canada since 2006.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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In the news today: Trump declares victory and secures comeback

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Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…

Donald Trump declares victory and secures political comeback

Former president Donald Trump is poised to return to White House after a polarizing U.S. election that deeply divided the country. The U.S. election on Tuesday saw Trump post early wins in critical states by taking Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris did not appear at her election night party at her alma mater Howard University in Washington. Top aides told the audience that Democrats would continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. However, U.S. TV networks projected Trump would be the winner early Wednesday morning.

Final day for nominations in Nova Scotia election

Today is the final day for candidate nominations in Nova Scotia’s provincial election campaign. Under the province’s Elections Act, nominations must close 20 days before election day on Nov. 26. The Progressive Conservatives confirmed in a news release last week that they will have a full slate of 55 candidates. The NDP and Liberals confirmed Tuesday that they will have a full slate of candidates, though there was no immediate word from the Green Party. At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

Nunavut premier to face confidence vote Wednesday

Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok is expected to face a confidence vote today in the territorial legislature. In a surprise move on Monday, Aivilik MLA Solomon Malliki gave notice that he’d present a motion calling for Akeeagok to be stripped of his premiership and removed from cabinet. In Nunavut’s consensus style of government — in which there are no political parties — the MLAs elect a premier from amongst themselves. If the motion passes, Akeeagok would be the second premier in Nunavut’s history to be ousted by the Legislative Assembly.

Greater Toronto home sales surge in October: board

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in October surged as buyers continued moving off the sidelines amid lower interest rates. The board says 6,658 homes changed hands last month in the Greater Toronto Area, up 44.4 per cent compared with 4,611 in the same month last year. Sales were up 14 per cent from September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Board president Jennifer Pearce says that while it is still early in the Bank of Canada’s key interest rate cutting cycle, homebuyers appear motivated by lower borrowing costs which contributed to a “positive affordability picture” last month alongside relatively flat home prices.

Work of Canadian war artist on display in Calgary

More than two dozen paintings from respected Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell are on display at the Military Museums in Calgary. MacDonnell spent three decades recording conflicts in Europe, Bosnia and Afghanistan but also looked back at atrocities from the past. Two of his paintings depict mass graves from the Second World War in Kyiv and Russia. Curator Dick Averns says MacDonnell considered himself to be a silent witness to some of the atrocities of war and usually involved destroyed buildings and the aftermath of war. The exhibit at the Military Museums in Calgary is the first for the artist since 2006.

Paula Hawkins talks isolation and new thriller

In Paula Hawkins’ latest thriller, people are emerging from pandemic isolation, engaging with culture once again, when a gallerygoer notices something a bit off about a sculpture displayed at the Tate Modern: it contains a deer bone that looks like it might actually be human. Set in the U.K. art scene, the end of COVID-19 lockdowns is a catalyst for the plot in the was-there-a-murder mystery. The thriller, centred on a mysterious museum collection hiding deadly secrets, is told from three perspectives: that of an artist who died shortly before the onset of the pandemic, her friend-turned-caretaker-turned-executor, and the museum curator tasked with retrieving the remaining artworks left to his employer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Justin Trudeau congratulates Donald Trump on his U.S. presidential win

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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended congratulations to Donald Trump on his re-election as president of the United States.

Trump staged a major political comeback, securing the necessary 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

This concludes a turbulent campaign for Trump, which included being convicted of 34 felonies in a hush-money case and two assassination attempts.

“On behalf of the government of Canada, I congratulate Donald Trump on being elected as President of the United States of America for a second term, and Senator JD Vance for his election as Vice-President of the United States,” Trudeau said in a statement.

“Canada and the U.S. have the world’s most successful partnership. We are neighbours and friends, united by a shared history, common values, and steadfast ties between our peoples. We are also each other’s largest trade partners and our economies are deeply intertwined.”

Trudeau added that in Trump’s first term, the two nations along with Mexico successfully negotiated the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement. Trudeau stressed the multi-billion dollar value of cross-border trade.

That trade deal is up for review in 2026, and Trump has promised to introduce a universal 10-per-cent tariff on all American imports.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also shared her congratulations on the social media platform X.

“Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbours and allies — deeply connected through our economies and our people,” she wrote.

“Together, we’ll focus on investment, growth and global peace and security.” Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman also extended congratulations to Trump and his running mate JD Vance.

“We have the great fortune of being neighbours, and the U.S. has no closer partner and ally than Canada. Looking forward to working together toward a more prosperous and secure future,” she said in a statement.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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