The Washington, D.C.-based Halifax International Security Forum, an annual security forum held in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, Canada, brings together government officials, military representatives, academics and businesspeople from dozens of countries and regions around the world to participate in the prestigious security forum event. Organizers of the forum have recently come under pressure from Canada’s Justin Trudeau government over plans to award a major prize to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, the political news site Politico reported Sunday.
The impasse, which is currently underway and has not previously received media coverage, has created tensions between the Halifax International Security Forum and the Canadian government, which is the forum’s main sponsorship partner, and NATO, which is also one of its sponsoring partners, the report said. Late last year, forum organizers decided to give Tsai the John McCain Public Service Leadership Award, named after the late U.S. Senator John McCain, according to several sources. McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, who is a member of the Forum’s Board of Directors, expressed her approval of the decision to give the award to Tsai.
This will reportedly be the third time the Halifax International Security Forum has presented the McCain Award. The first time was in 2018, when the award was given to the people of the Greek island of Lesbos, which is on the front line of refugee entry into Europe, for their efforts to save refugees. The second time, in 2019, the award was given to civil disobedience activists in Hong Kong. The forum then plans to give a third award to Tsai Ing-wen for her strong confrontation with relentless Chinese pressure. When Canadian officials learned of the forum’s plans, they made clear that the Canadian government would withdraw support and funding from the Halifax International Security Forum if forum organizers gave the honor to Tsai, the report said. The forum organizers have not yet decided on their next move, and the situation appears to be at an impasse.
The Halifax International Security Forum has not yet announced the winner of the 2020 John McCain Public Service Leadership Award, and we look forward to doing so in due course, given the challenges posed by the new coronavirus pandemic,” said Robin Shepherd, the forum’s vice president, in a statement. President Tsai of Taiwan is a highly respected international leader, the first female president of Taiwan, and a strong advocate for global democracy. She is certainly an ideal candidate for this award. At this time, we have no further announcements to make.” For its part, the McCain Institute, which Cindy McCain chairs on the board, did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan gave an ambiguous response to news of whether the Trudeau government had threatened to withdraw from the forum over the organizers’ plans to present the award to Tsai. “The Canadian government has provided financial support through a contribution agreement with the Halifax International Security Forum,” his spokesman, Todd Lane, said via email. The letter continued, “While financial support was provided, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces were not involved in the planning of the forum. We have been contacted by the organizers, as well as many other organizations, for panelists on a variety of topics, and we will do our best to support them when appropriate.”
Sajjan will be in the Canadian Parliament next Monday evening for a special committee hearing on Canada-China relations. Officials from Taiwan’s representative offices in Washington and Ottawa declined to comment. Also on the story, Canadian Conservative leader Erin O’Toole criticized the Trudeau-led Liberal government, saying it was “disappointing, but not surprising, to see the extent to which the Trudeau government will covertly support the Chinese Communist Party.” In the email, he wrote, “It begs the question of what else this government is doing in secret that we don’t know about to support their friends in China.”
But the impasse over the two Canadian “Michaels” being held by the Chinese since the Meng case is also one of the biggest diplomatic challenges the Trudeau government has faced in recent times. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa also did not respond to a request for comment.
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