The Canada-China Relationship: Past, Present and Future

A conversation with Jack Austin and Bernie Frolic on the foundation and evolution of Canada's complex relationship with China, moderated by Dr. Emile Dirks.

 

PARTICIPANTS' BIOS:

 

Jack Austin is the co-author of Unlikely Insider: A West Coast Advocate in Ottawa. He was a member of the Senate of Canada for 32 years, representing British Columbia and has championed stronger relations between Canada and Asia. In 1971, as the Serving Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, he was part of the first Canadian trade mission to China. He later served as President of the Canada China Business Council and Co-Chair of the Canada China Legislative Association. Senator Austin was awarded the Order of Canada for his contribution in Canada-China relations, and was also instrumental in establishing the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Austin has been involved in politics and public policy at the highest levels for more than fifty years. He lives in Vancouver.

 

B. Michael Frolic is the Executive Director of the Asian Business and Management Program and Professor Emeritus of Politics at York University. He first visited China in 1965 and was First Secretary in the Canadian Embassy Beijing in the 1970s. Later he taught at Peking University and Beijing Foreign Studies University and was a visiting professor at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous chapters, monographs and books, including Mao's People: Sixteen Portraits of Life in Revolutionary China (Harvard University, 1981); Civil Society in China (w/ Timothy Brook, Routledge, 1997), and his latest Canada and China: A Fifty-Year Journey (University of Toronto Press, 2022).

 

Emile Dirks is a Research Associate at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. His research on police-led mass biometric surveillance in China has been covered by The New York Times, The Economist, and The Intercept, among other publications. He completed his PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto in 2022.