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Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
@GenevaTradeLaw
Aug 19, 2019 • 10 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
@BaldingsWorld Personal story involving mainland Chinese students (and their professor), trade law, and Chinese nationalism. Only a data point.

Over dinner, Chinese student studying trade law at a Western European university asked me: "Why is the West picking on China?" 1/
@BaldingsWorld When asked her to clarify what she meant, she and her collegue (and the professor, also Chinese), pointed to China's economic miracle and complained that the "West" wanted to impose "its values" and economic structures on China. 2/
@BaldingsWorld Long conversation ensued.

I specifically pointed to China's commitments in its WTO Accession Protocol (for example, an independent judiciary), as well as the WTO obligations itself: on transparency, a functioning market economy and so on. 3/

nytimes.com/2017/01/18/wor…
@BaldingsWorld There was not a whole lot of argument on the other side, other than the usual "China has different values" and "Western capitalism does not work in China" and so on. The crowning argument-at which point I ended the conversation-was, "Anyway, I LOVE MY COUNTRY." 4/
@BaldingsWorld The prof, who had begin similarly strident, was taken aback by this. After dinner, he said that more and more students coming out of China have a similar *argumentative disposition*: any criticism of China is existential; "love of country" overrides rational discourse. 5/
@BaldingsWorld My adolescence was spent battling revolutionary dogma even as I saw close friends succumb to it; I know how it works. External pressure-even rational argument-reinforces the under-siege mentality rather than shedding light on the contradictions of the dogma. 6/
@BaldingsWorld So my bet would be that they really mean it. Does not bode well.

/fin
@BaldingsWorld *begun

aaargh
@BaldingsWorld P.s. I avoid the term "brainwashed" because the line of thinking is not limited to Chinese students. Even the @ft sometimes falls victim to the "puw wittow China oppressed by neoliberal" narrative.

@BaldingsWorld @FT P.p.s. Some additional context on China and the WTO (this is the substance of at least part of the conversation with the Chinese student).

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More from @GenevaTradeLaw

Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
Jun 20
Hear ye, hear ye!

The Ontario Superior Court is in session. We have a decision in Dong v. Global.

It's not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning in a deeply disturbing and shameful episode of Canadian journalism. 1/
This is not a ruling on the underlying allegation that Global defamed Dong. Rather, it's a threshold ruling; but an important one.

In Ontario, you can't sue to shut people up on matters of public importance. This is a critical principle, essential for the free flow of debate. 2/ Image
There's no question that Global's, er, "reporting" was a matter of expression. Bad expression badly expressed, but expression nonetheless.

But, the plaintiff can try to show that there are *grounds to believe* that the case has no merit and the defendant has no defence. And, 3/ Image
Read 42 tweets
Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
May 1
When I first saw this quote I thought it was fake.

This, of course, is dangerous populist rhetoric. Next step from this is government by plebiscite, the favourite of tinpot petty dictators the world over.

This, by the way, is not about the Notwithstanding clause. Not just. 1/
Image
The Notwithstanding clause is part of a complex set of compromises that made the Charter possible. It is a safety valve, permitting Parliament and the courts to have a time-limited dialogue in respect of a limited number of constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

Like the EA, 2/
it's there to help the government and Parliament in specific policy matters of national importance. But like the EA, even though a part of our democratic system of governance, the NC should not be an instrument of first resort or - worse - a prophylactic.

And when you start 3/
Read 12 tweets
Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
Jan 3
This is an excellent thread.

As General Counsel @FinancesCanada during the Financial Crisis, I was responsible for legal advice on all non-tax business lines of the Department. This list is missing trade, money laundering, and international financial institutions. 1/
Image
The Globe is, of course, doing the Globe-par-excellence thing of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. It aspires to be the Economist - a foolhardy venture at the best of times - and ends up being a only marginally higher-brow National Post. 2/
@FinancesCanada rightly prides itself for excellent management of its own resources - as an example to the rest of the government. I know this because I had to go to them for funding our legal operations.

Now, the term "challenge function" hides 3/

Read 14 tweets
Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
Dec 23, 2023
Retweeting the CPC is further evidence that the punditocracy does not want the Truth about election interference, but a full-on Gomery circus.

Government lawyers do not represent Liberal Party interests. This is a depraved attack on the professionalism of the civil service. 1/
Image
I was a "government lawyer" for almost twenty years, under both Liberal and Conservative governments. In all that time, except in one glaring instance, ministers were diligent in keeping party and political matters out of policy briefings and instructions.

To be sure, 2/
we advised on and implemented Government policy that reflected political interests, but that's a different species than "party interest" as such. But our work advanced the interests of the state rather than the political party at the helm.

When I appeared before Parliament, 3/
Read 40 tweets
Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
Oct 11, 2023
I don't know if @MichaelChongMP ever served in government, or whether @acoyne (who regularly retweets the MP) remembers the Lebanon evacuation. And, especially, what an evacuation in a war zone entails. I defer to my former colleagues, @SabineNolke and @PafsoPresApase.

A 🧵. 1/
1. We do not have enough diplomats in each potential trouble spot to help everyone who needs help. This is normal: you staff to what is needed for routine operations, and staff up if something comes up.
2. An evacuation is a "whole of diplomatic service" enterprise. 2/
When Lebanon happened, call went out to diplomatic missions within a reasonable distance for volunteers. (I volunteered but did not end up going.) The volunteer staff are there to help with basic things that evacuees need. Like - literally - coffee while they wait. 3/
Read 11 tweets
Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
May 25, 2023
I like priors to be challenged, which is why I read Andrew's opinion pieces.

He'd "boil down" the Old Testament to: "Guy found in a floating basket goes up a mountain, talks to a burning bush, and comes back with sixteen rules he counts as ten, half of which are about him." 1/
The key question is not, of course, whether or not a public inquiry. The punditocracy knows well that the documents that have not been aired will still not be aired. And that they will also not be shown to people who don't have clearance. (Hint hint) But, the people who do, 2/
can in fact see the documents and *confirm* Mr. Johnston's review. Or have I missed something here? Is there something wrong with existing parliamentary committees in respect specifically to classified documents?

So this line of "he asks us to trust him" is a distraction. 3/
Read 11 tweets

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