FELDSTED: While we can express our displeasure, or ask for leniency, our standards do not apply. Government virtue signalling is a useless exercise because totalitarian states are not listening

Canadian Robert Schellenberg Sentenced to Death in China in Drug-Smuggling Case

Jessica Chin ~~ HuffPost ~~ 01/14/2019 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will do everything it can to intervene on behalf of a Canadian sentenced to death in China. ... "I will say it is of extreme concern to us as a government— as it should be to all our international friends and allies— that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply death penalty as in this case facing a Canadian".

In December, Chinese state media raised Schellenberg's case, who at that point was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was originally detained in China in 2014, with a trial that began in 2016. He was sentenced in 2018.  Courts heard an appeal of that conviction on Dec. 29, 2018, and ordered a retrial for Monday, raising the possibility of a harsher sentence.

Schellenberg was again found guilty of taking part in an international drug-smuggling ring, according to the Wall Street Journal. Drug smuggling is an offence punishable by death in China.

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Robert Schellenberg sentenced to
death, in China, for drug trafficking

Who turned the Mad Hatter loose in 2019, because honestly this situation is both surreal and bizarre?

What we know is that Schellenberg was convicted of conspiring to smuggle drugs in China. But we must keep in mind that China is a massive exporter of illegal drugs ... therefore we can probably assume her government does not take kindly to competition.

The law is not uniformly applied ... exporters with the right political connections are safe ... foreign dealers are not likely to fare well ... the penalty for drug dealing is death.

China’s decision to put Schellenberg to death is arbitrary. Every decision it makes is arbitrary and political. There is no fair, honest and independent justice system in China. Given China is ruled by a totalitarian communist regime, an accused person is completely at the mercy of the government.   

We in Canada don’t sentence drug dealers to death; perhaps if we did however, we wouldn’t be tripping over the bodies of accidental overdose victims. Drug dealing is not a minor crime, especially in a number of countries around the world.

If you deal in or use illegal drugs, don’t go to Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malesia, Myanmar, Oman, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam or Yemen amongst others.

There are parts of our world overrun by bandits, corrupt governments, corrupt police agencies, kidnappers, militias, rebels and terrorists. Common sense tells us to avoid those places.

"As a government, we actually strengthened the policy that requires the Canadian government to always intercede on behalf of a Canadian facing the death penalty anywhere in the world. We will continue to do that as we have in this case", said Justin Trudeau.

STILL, while we can express our displeasure, or ask for leniency, we have no means of enforcing a change in sentence. Travellers to a foreign nation are subject to its laws, and whatever passes for its justice system. Our standards do not apply, and government virtue signalling is a useless exercise. Totalitarian states are not listening.

Our government’s preoccupation with rehabilitating foreign nations is not what it was elected to do, and its efforts are not welcomed by other nations.   Meantime, our Indian Act infringes heavily on aboriginal people’s rights and freedoms ... and that IS something our government can do something about.

John Feldsted

Political Consultant & Strategist

Winnipeg, Manitoba