Meet the Nepal director of regime-change NGO National Democratic Institute, turned sinophobic New Brunswick Education Minister
New Brunswick Education Minister Dominic Cardy.
Written by: Aidan Jonah
New Brunswick’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, Dominic Cardy, went off on a Twitter rant back in January, committing the consistent centrist fallacy of equating communism and fascism.
When challenged on this point by a concerned constituent, Cardy chose to cite his work for the regime change NGO, National Democratic Institute. Cardy stated that “As a veteran of confronting extremists in multiple war zones, failed states, and weak states, and having watched extremism rise at home over the last decade I believe you’re incorrect. The be nice approach emboldens extremists, who view it as weakness.”
What experiences is Cardy referring to?
According to his LinkedIn, from 2001 to 2002, Cardy worked as a senior program officer in Bangladesh. From July to November 2002, Cardy worked as a program manager in Pakistan. He worked in Cambodia from 2002 to 2005 in senior roles. Cardy then worked in Nepal from 2005 to 2008.
What’s the NDI?
The NDI is controlled by the National Endowment for Democracy, a regime change arm of the US government.
As reported earlier by The Canada Files, Allen Weinstein, a former acting president of NED and one of the authors of the study that led to its creation, said in a 1991 interview that "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
NDI and Nepal
Nepal was a truly unique place. In 1996, the Maoist faction of the Nepali communist party began an armed resistance against the Nepalese constitutional monarchy. The popular opposition to this monarchy, was a coalition of communist and Maoists. For years, the US government turned a blind eye to violence from the monarchy, and would only criticize potential communist abuses. A guerilla war was mainly fought in hillsides starting in 2001, to a stalemate four years later.
By April 2006, the communists had formed a popular coalition with seven other parties and reached a ceasefire deal with the communists. The monarch, King Gyanendra, gave up absolute power that month. The communists were the second largest power in the Nepal assembly, and even the US government is applauding the deal, not seeking to block the communists from a key role in government.
In June 2006, Dominic Cardy expressed his concern about Maoists gaining key roles in the government, specifically four ministries: Health, Land, Planning, and Education.
While elections were set to occur in June 2007, Cardy and the US government sought the delay of a full return to democracy, arguing that the election commission needed further training. Cardy expressed his worry on the unpreparedness for elections, of liberal parties, stating that:
“The parties would likely have trouble getting out their message in the election because of a lack of involvement by the political parties at the grassroots level for many years, limited training for lower level political party members, and a divided agenda.”
Cardy explicitly stated his fear that “Maoists could co-opt the election to gain state power”.
Wikileaks documents detail how “Cardy requested U.S. funding for NDI to bring in campaign managers to help the political parties learn to run their campaigns effectively.” This desire was to create a situation reminiscent of when then the US brought in advisors, and rigged elections to help American lackey Boris Yeltsin retain the Russian presidency in 1996.
Cardy noted that “the political parties did not know how to run a real, clean campaign.” But he believed that “NDI, with the right experts, could.”
The NDI and Cardy fearmongered about a “flawed election process”. They worked alongside political power figures to delay elections until 2008. The NDI was training local leaders, actively seeking to supress Maoist support in the hillsides, and pressuring mainstream political parties to join in a firm anti-Maoist election coalition. While the election drew nearer, the NDI continually worked to assist the other political parties.
Cardy began to disparage the election on April 14, 2008, as the Maoists held a lead in polling.
“Cardy, a severe critic of the Maoists” however accepted that “Maoist wins in Kathmandu and the Terai probably reflected the people's will.”
The Maoists ended up winning 217 of 577 elected seats, gaining control of the Nepali assembly. Maoist leader Pushka Kamal Dahal became Prime Minister on August 15, 2008. Cardy and the NDI’s efforts to impede them had failed.
Cardy goes to Fredericton
In 2010, Cardy was the campaign director for the New Brunswick NDP. From March 2011 to 2017, he was the leader of the New Brunswick NDP and steered them towards centrism. Cardy joined the Progressive Conservatives in April 2017, and served as the party’s chief of staff until September 2018. That month, Cardy was elected as a member of the provincial assembly for the constituency of Fredericton West-Hanwell.
In November 2018, Cardy was appointed as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, in the new PC majority government.
Cardy’s sinophobia was shown clearly soon after. In early 2019, Cardy made his determination to get rid of the province’s Confucius Institutes clear, with CBC News quoting him as stating that these institutes are “Chinese propaganda that prevented discussion of topics that cast China in a bad light”. In August 2019, the plan to shut down the Confucius institutes was revealed.
The announcement stated that these institutes would not fully shut down, but would be cut down as much as possible within the limits of the contract with China. The program was scrapped in kindergarten to Grade 8, while CBC News revealed that “Mandarin language training, but not its offerings on Chinese culture, will continue as an elective subject at eight high schools until 2022.”
This isn’t the only time Canadian institutions have targeted this institute. Back in 2014, CSIS visited a Confucius Institute located in Quebec’s Dawson College based on unsubstantiated allegations of the institutes being “used as spy satellite offices by China”.
The presence of Confucius Institute(s) in the US, Canada around the world is a cultural exchange program which allows students to learn about Chinese culture, and offers training for Mandarin. These institutes were introduced at the request of foreign governments, whose educational institutes partnered with the Confucius Institute located in Beijing.
Yet, with the cold war against China ramping up, the New Brunswick government and the Trump government, have targeted the institute since 2018, seeking to force it out of their respective regions.
Twitter user “ArtsyMarxist” stated that, while working at a Confucius Institute, she saw how poor students would use the resources including free books and computers provided by the institute.
This campaign against the Confucius Institute, by both a provincial Canadian government, and the American government is one motivated by the rampant Sinophobia permeating Western society. We are all worse off for this attack on Chinese culture.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news site founded in 2019. He has written about Canadian imperialism, federal politics, and left-wing resistance to colonialism across the world. He is a second-year Bachelor of Journalism student at Ryerson University, who was the Head of Communications and Community Engagement for Etobicoke North NDP Candidate Naiima Farah in the 2019 Federal Election.
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