This article originally appeared in the National Post.
By Jan Matejcek, February 2, 2026
I grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia, and after the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, I served proudly on the board of Czech President Václav Havel’s Vision ’97 Foundation. Having known him personally, I can say with certainty that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plans do not at all align with Havel’s vision.
In his Davos speech, Carney invoked Havel’s essay, “The Power of the Powerless,” to draw upon Havel’s insight that the Soviet system relied upon the capitulation of ordinary people to the lies of Communist ideology. According to Carney, the rules-based international order has likewise been “partially false,” a system of lies held up by nations’ willingness to avoid “calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.”
Vaclav Havel, a playwright turned dissident, gained international fame during the 1968 Prague Spring, which was brutally suppressed by Soviet troops. Refusing to emigrate, he endured imprisonment and persecution, but he persevered in his work. Armed with only a pen and truth, he helped to bring down Soviet rule and after the fall of the Iron Curtain was elected president.
I know from our discussions how this wonderful man detested dictatorships and rigid ideology. He believed that truth should guide society and that governments should respect human dignity and individual freedom. To Havel, government should serve the people, not be their master.
He argued that “post-dictatorial” states persist because their citizens become demoralized by state ideology so pervasive that they feel no other choice but to submit and comply. They do this despite knowing that the states’ lies do not reflect reality. As Carney noted at Davos, Havel illustrated this with the parable of a shopkeeper who posts the slogan “Workers of the world, unite” in his window — not out of conviction, but to signal obedience and avoid trouble. Havel calls this performative conformity “living in a lie.”
In post-dictatorial states, governments often no longer need to terrorize their citizens — ideology and submissiveness suffice. Social pressure — amplified by state-approved language and behaviours codified in the state ideology — ensures conformity, isolating dissidents. But as time passes, the centrally imposed ideology grows increasingly detached from people’s real concerns and beliefs. Citizens will go along, like the shopkeeper, but they will not defend the ideology if it’s challenged by the truth. At this point, the system collapses — as it did in Czechoslovakia under Havel’s activism. But this doesn’t happen passively — it needs dissidents like Havel to be the catalyst.
Given my experience in post-communist Czechoslovakia, my familiarity with Havel’s views, and Canada’s recent changes to foreign policy along with struggles with foreign interference, I found Carney’s speech — coming days after his visit to China — deeply disturbing.
Carney came to power promising a trade deal with the United States. Since then, he has told Canadians that Canada’s special relationship with the United States is over. He is now promoting a “strategic partnership” with China not just in business, but also in highly sensitive areas such as national security, culture, journalism and more. This reversal occurred without public consultation or parliamentary debate and contradicts Carney’s previous claim during the 2025 election campaign that China was our greatest national security threat.
The about-face is astounding. However, it must be considered in the context of China’s long-term goal of weakening the Canada-US alliance and reshaping the international order to its benefit.
Carney’s comments in China of a “new world order” were particularly alarming. Will our new “strategic partnership” be the fuel that supercharges the ongoing efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to infiltrate and influence our nation?
Canada’s security agencies have designated China as our primary foreign adversary. Meanwhile, the recent Hogue inquiry on foreign interference found clear evidence of PRC covert influence in Canada — especially in the areas of election interference and government infiltration. The PRC maintains a well-documented and extensive network of organizations and operatives that monitor the Chinese diaspora and seek to influence public opinion and all levels of government. The PRC interferes in our elections, spies on us, and reportedly operates secret police stations in Canada. Experts allege China has “compromised” Parliament itself.
Ottawa’s response has been inadequate.
Canada’s chronically underfunded security services ultimately report to the prime minister and his minister of public safety. What are CSIS, the RCMP, and other agencies to take from Carney’s expressed desire to partner with the PRC not just economically, but on security matters? Will our security services be free to investigate PRC interference while working at the same time in “partnership” with China’s Ministry of State Security? Already, there is rising concern that a Canada-China security partnership could provoke our fellow Five Eyes partners to kick us out of the western spy network.
And then, there are the issues of the PRC’s terrible human rights record, the stark differences in trade and investment regimes between China and the U.S., and the predatory history of Chinese companies in Canada. For instance, Huawei allegedly crippled Canada’s flagship company, Nortel Networks, by systematically stealing its technology. Canada’s Chinese partner for vaccine production, CanSino, refused to supply inputs for the vaccines in 2020, pulling the rug from under Canada during the pandemic. China also supplies the fentanyl precursors that kill 20 Canadians daily. At the same time, China only buys 4 per cent of our exports, compared to the 74 per cent we sell the United States. And still, Carney calls China our new “strategic partner.”
Clearly, Carney missed Havel’s point. The Czech dissident urged citizens to demand freedom, dignity and truth. Carney’s overtures to China do the opposite, asking Canadians to ignore the PRC’s oppressive tactics at home and abroad and to accept the lie that China and the U.S. are equivalent strategic partners in business, politics, the media, culture, and national security.
As Havel would, we must call out this lie while we can still speak the truth. The window of opportunity is closing. Our governments and elites show no signs of confronting the PRC’s malign influence.
Thankfully, Havel taught us how to dismantle failed ideologies: by speaking truth to power, demanding dignity and freedom, and confronting those who would gladly replace democracy with oppression. Remember, we citizens are the ones who hold the power. But the time for action is now.
Jan Matejcek co-founded the Save PEI Association, a non-profit that seeks to protect PEI’s democracy and heritage, and is a contributor to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
