Continually demonstrating just how cold and uncaring his Conservative government can be, PM Stephen Harper recently welcomed the propaganda minister for China to Ottawa. That minister, Mr. Li, controls the media in China and dictates what in that nation can or cannot seen, heard or said.

What does that mean? Following the Arab Spring in early 2011, an online appeal for Chinese citizens to follow the model that toppled dictators in the Middle East led China's government to restrict foreign media and arrest political dissidents.

Websites that discuss such topics as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Tibetan independence and terms such as freedom of speech and democracy are routinely censored in China. Foreign media sites such as the BBC News and Yahoo! can also be blocked.

Mr. Li oversees that process and he received an official Canadian welcome from Harper, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Governor-General David Johnston.

Let's make no mistake - the Harper government wants to increase tar sands production and risk the northern BC watersheds and BC coastline to sell oil to the dictatorial regime of China. This meeting was simply part of a process to further relations with a government that represses its own citizens.

Amnesty International has stated that China has the highest number of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents on the planet. Mr. Li works to jail citizens who present a differing media and online vision than that of the Chinese regime.

There is coldness to those who can do business with such a government - a cold heart that is willing to risk the natural environment and to ignore the reality of Chinese citizens imprisoned for political beliefs in order to favour oil corporations.

I wonder if the Harper government would not have also done business in the same way with the fascist regimes of the 1930s -if they would have not sold Canadian oil to power German and Italian dictators. We don't know the answer to that then but we do know that they want to sell oil to power Chinese police cars now.

Chad Beharriell

Iron Bridge, ON