Canada Backs Beijing Olympics While Coaching Their Athletes To Avoid This
The Beijing Olympics are coming up and many countries are thinking that China doesn't feel like a safe venue to hold such an event, especially with the Genocide. Senate GOP members have gone as far as to petition to move the games to a safer country, but our Northern Ally, Canada, on the other hand, has decided to go ahead anyway. They are just teaching their athletes what not to say in order to stay out of a Chinese prison. That sounds real safe.
"Canada’s Olympic organizers will warn athletes to watch what they say in China next year, out of fear of a national security law in Hong Kong that has been used to arrest Beijing’s critics.
“There have been dissidents in Hong Kong who have been taken away and charged for saying things that have been contrary to the Communist Party of the Chinese government’s policies,” said David Shoemaker, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
“So we will talk to our athletes about the implications of what they say and of the topics that they choose to speak about.”
Athletes have the right to speak freely, Mr. Shoemaker said in an interview with The Globe and Mail, in which he expressed opposition to calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games next February. Such an action is unlikely to affect Chinese policies toward Muslims or its incarceration of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, he said – and, he added, could even make things worse for the two detained Canadians.
By attending the Olympics, athletes can be part of “the most spectacular sporting event in the world that unites and inspires and amplifies diverse voices,” he said. In Beijing, they “can be part of a conversation.”
But before they go, the Canadian Olympic Committee will also spend “a considerable amount of time” counseling Olympians on what “they might consider not commenting on, perhaps, at least until after the Games have taken place,” he said. “Because of the implications that that could have for them under things like the national security law.”
But it appears Biden is in the dark on this whole thing, which is not all that surprising.
"On Wednesday, Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden currently has no plans to boycott the games or bar American athletes from participating. When asked if Biden supported the Senate initiative to have the games moved, Psaki referred reporters to the US Olympic Committee.
“We consult, of course, closely with allies and partners at all levels to define our common concerns and establish a shared approach, but there is no discussion underway of a change in our plans from the United States at this point in time,” she said."
I guess those Canadians are just a little too nice here. Why send your star athletes into the Lion's Den at all? Even if you are coaching them to stay out of prison.