If he weren't languishing in a French prison for a crime he says he didn't commit, Dr. Hassan Diab might've smiled ruefully when China pressed Justin Trudeau for an extradition treaty with Canada the other day.

When Mr. Trudeau, who sees sunshine where others see black clouds, boasted of "Canada's extremely high standards on extradition," Dr. Diab might have guffawed out loud. But since it's been two years since he was extradited from Canada to France and imprisoned, he might have lost his sense of humour.

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

According to the Globe and Mail, or at least one of the five apparently like-minded individuals interviewed recently by the newspaper's "national food reporter," the Chinese government's concerns about the quality of Canadian canola seed is "simply a political trade issue that the Chinese have chosen to push forward. It's not based on science."

In principle, all Canadian politicians forthrightly favour human rights and make it a central tenet, an overriding principle, of their foreign policy platforms.

No one, for example, wants to defend selling arms to Saudi Arabia, not even those opposition Conservative MPs who actually did the deal when they were in government. Or the new Liberal government that is supporting the Conservative deal they once loudly opposed in opposition.