Lessons for Xi Jinping: Habeas Corpus and “The Petition of Right” (1628)

And where also by the statute called, ‘The Great Charter of the Liberties of England[1],’ it is declared and enacted that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned or imprisoned or be deseised of his freeholds or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled; or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land:

And in the eight and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the Third, it was declared and enacted by authority of Parliament, that no man of what estate or condition that he be, should be put out of his lands or tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disherited, nor put to death, without being brought to answer by due process of law:

Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and statutes of your realm, to that end provided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause showed, and when for their deliverance they were brought before your justices, by your Majesty’s writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as the court should order, and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer; no cause was certified, but that they were detained by your Majesty’s special command, signified by the Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several prisons, without being charged with anything which they might make answer according to the law ….[2]

They do therefore humbly pray your Most Excellent Majesty, that no man be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge without common consent by Act of Parliament; and that none be called to make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested, or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before-mentioned, be imprisoned or detained …[3]

“The Petition of Right” (excerpts), June 7, 1628

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[1] A reference to the Magna Carta, signed by King John on 15 June 1215.

[2] Samuel R. Gardiner, The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1628-1660 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889 [Franklin Classics Reprint]), pp. 2,3.  Emphasis added.

[3] Ibid., p. 4.

Pandering to Chinese money: Coquitlam School District (SD43) - and B.C.’s universities

Re: “Trip to China just business: SD43” Tri-City News, Thursday, July 18, 2019[1]

The Editor:

Letter writers to the Tri-City News (myself included) are only knocking their heads against a brick wall each time they wish to publish criticisms of SD43’s (Coquitlam School District 43) “business” relationship with China.  Nothing is going to change unless, maybe, there’s a Tiananmen-like repeat in Hong Kong, which would press the otherwise naïve mandarinate on Poirier Street.

The bureaucracy at SD43 – not unlike like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – is an institution, and all institutions want to enlarge themselves and then reward their members: that’s why our school trustees are the highest paid in B.C.  In other words, just by virtue of their salaries alone the trustees are in a conflict of interest.  They have paid themselves off for the hard work of their annual all-expense-paid excursions to China.

Both of these institutions, as the English philosopher Michael Oakeshott would like to say, are driven by “the politics of faith”: each of them has their own “mission statement”.  One treats the individual as a “blank slate” to be shaped into becoming a productive member of commercial or industrial society, the other wants to exercise minute control of the population by means of government or police apparatus.  Each shares a belief in the ability to master the world, but because of the CCP’s exclusive and iron-fisted rule within the Chinese mainland – and now given the size of China’s economy - it poses a problem for the rest of us.

While SD43 does pander to Chinese money, it is not the only educational institution in B.C. to do so.  SD43 is just mimicking their so-called betters, especially UBC (University of British Columbia) which is most egregious in this respect.  UBC is supposed to be a “public” first-tier research university, but it has built and staffed its own college to teach overseas students whose English is not good enough for first-year.  So one reason why UBC Vantage College exists is because UBC has around 5,000 mainland Chinese students – about one third of its overseas contingent – all of whom can afford the tuition fees and residence costs, and they come in reliable numbers.  Not to be outdone, SFU (Simon Fraser University) – at about 2,500 Chinese students - has a relationship with Fraser International College, but the latter has the merit of being private.

We ought to ask ourselves: who is coming over here? After Mao died in 1976, huge billboards that once wished him a long life were converted into conspicuous advertisements for consumer goods that were at the time unavailable in China.  Today at either our schools or universities, Chinese students are driving high-end luxury cars the values of which far exceeds any budget of their teachers or professors.  How do they pay for them?  What connections do they have with the CCP?  And, given their wealth where is the real academic incentive to learn? Finally, why do we continue to let our public institutions cater to the elite of a foreign country which doesn’t abide by the rules?

The answer appears to lie in the fact that even ivory towers in B.C. aren’t immune to pull of the “cash nexus” which is now so familiar to SD43.  In other words, there’s an exchange going on but it’s not very cultural, or so we like to think.

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[1] The Tri- City News serves Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada.  An edited version of this letter was published by the Tri-City News on Thursday, August 15, 2019.

John McCallum: ex-Ambassador to China

John McCallum, Canada’s (fired) Ambassador to China was likely co-opted by Beijing before he was awarded the post in 2017, the first time a Cabinet minister (with the ear of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) was sent as diplomat-in-chief to the world’s second largest economy.   The Globe and Mail reports that McCallum had “accepted more than $73,000 in free trips to China when he was Member of Parliament on the opposition benches between 2008 and 2015.”[1]  Who knows how many other elected representatives in Canada make such ethical compromises and gladly accept what Beijing has to offer?

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[1] “McCallum: Remarks ‘call into question’ envoy’s suitability for continuing in his role, former diplomat says,” The Globe and Mail, Thursday January 24, 2019, Folio, p. A11.

Oriental despotism

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.[1]

 - Alphonse Karr (Les Guêpes, January 1849).

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[1] Usually translated as “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  These words appeared following the Revolutions of 1848 and one month after Louis Napoleon (returned from exile in England) was elected by a landslide vote as president of the Second Republic of France on December 10, 1848.  Three years later (on December 2, the anniversary of his more famous uncle’s coup in 1804) he staged his own coup and revised the 1848 constitution.  Exactly a year later (also the anniversary of the first Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz), he started calling himself Napoleon III, Emperor of France.