OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Documents presented to Canada’s House of Commons show that $365 million worth of mostly interest-free loans were given to China from the early 1980s until the mid 2000s, with repayments for some loans not due until 2045.
According to a Blacklock’s Reporter, an inquiry that was requested by Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Kelly McCauley exposed the nature of the 168 loans given to China. A total of 147 were interest-free loans, with the remainder having interest ranging between 1 to 9 percent, meaning that overall Canadians are out millions in potential interest earned.
The export loans all had repayment terms between 40 and 50 years.
In an Inquiry Of Ministry regarding the loans, the cabinet wrote, “From the 1980s to the early 2000s these loans were provided to Beijing.”
The loans were given out to support Canada’s exports, and they were “suspended in the early 2000s.”
The loans were “provided in the past to help ensure Canadian exporters could compete on equal footing with foreign competitors,” with “better financing,” noted the Inquiry.
The total amount of the loans was $364,714,786, and final payments are not mandated until February 15, 2045.
The loans were released through Export Development Canada but did need cabinet approval before being released.
The loans were issued through the “Canada Account” which is a “fund the staff recommends against but the minister can do an override and make an investment for reasons best known to the minister,” said Liberal MP John McKay in 2010 to the Commons finance committee.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the loans to China were deemed to meet “national interest considerations,” and were far more than loans given to other countries under the Export Development Act.
For comparison, a loan totaling $96.2 million was given to Iraq, $86.4 million to Turkey, $42.6 million to India.
In a 2020 critique of the loan program by Environmental Defence, as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the loans from the Canada Account “can easily become grants.”
“Any loss incurred is directly borne by Canadian taxpayers,” said the critique.
The loans are still allowed to be carried out despite the fact that the Chinese Communist regime’s known human rights violations resulted in the House of Commons voting in 2021 to censure the regime.
Pro-life filmmaker and human rights activist Jason Jones on a recent show with LifeSiteNews’ John-Henry Westen talked about the Chinese Communist Party’s “monstrous human rights abuses.”
Jones noted that the root cause of the evils of China’s government and its crimes against humanity is a rejection of God, of any transcendent order in general.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2013, before he became PM, that he admires the “basic dictatorship” of China’s Communist Party.