Juno News - December 13, 2020Appeased and Displeased
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Summary
A new low in Canada's policy of appeasement with China, and the mainstream media's unwillingness to report on it. Coming up on The Andrew Lawton Show: The Canadian military is no longer training with China's People's Liberation Army.
Transcript
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Coming up, a new low in Canada's policy of appeasement with China
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and the mainstream media's unwillingness to report on it.
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Welcome to the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.
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It is December 12th and oh my goodness, what a big week for news.
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I'm going to just be talking about one major story and a lot of the spin-off narratives that emerged from it.
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And that was a great scoop by our friends over at Rebel News on really a two-pronged story here.
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The first part of it is the Canadian military training China's military, actually known as the People's Liberation Army.
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But the other part of it, and I'd say the more insane part of this,
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is that the Trudeau government was actively fighting and pushing back against a directive
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and a recommendation from the military itself to stop this.
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The Trudeau government was saying, no, no, no, we don't want to rock the boat.
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Now, as it stands now, there is no training happening.
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Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan had said that the Canadian military is no longer training with the Chinese army.
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So clearly at some point the government relented on this or the military just said,
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But I want to talk about this in a few different contexts here.
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Because first and foremost, the Trudeau government didn't start this.
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A lot of people are pointing out that, oh well, if the Conservatives have such an issue with this,
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Harper should have never allowed this to happen in the first place.
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And I'm not obfuscating here because I think, yeah, getting into bed with China,
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especially the Chinese military, sharing our secrets, our tactics, our tricks,
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whatever we do in winter combat, sharing that with China, who is not an ally, is not a friend, is a bad idea.
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But I will point out that it's been in the last few years that that relationship with China has gotten as tenuous and strained as it has.
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I mean, certainly we needed to approach China with apprehension.
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The Conservative government would have known full well about China's intelligence and influence operations in Canada on Canadian soil.
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In fact, there was even a Conservative member of Parliament who was linked in some way with someone who was very likely a Chinese spy
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So the whole point of this is that, yeah, the Conservatives should have known China wasn't our friend.
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But it's only been in the recent few years that the Chinese relationship is one that particularly has become a very potent threat to Canada.
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So when the military is saying, hey, we don't want to do this anymore, the Trudeau government should have been like, yep, fine with us, we're done.
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So in these documents, these emails, which the government kind of accidentally handed over, which is interesting in and of itself.
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They were trying to black things out, but ended up really just highlighting them because you could read the text through it.
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Some of them are classified as secret with the designation of being for Canadian eyes only.
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But ultimately, if the Freedom of Information officers or Access Information officers don't know the difference between a redaction,
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which they use very effectively in a lot of other cases, and just, you know, covering it up with a little bit of a black highlighter,
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then there really is no question that getting these documents makes them fair game for reporting.
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And in these documents, in these emails of people going back and forth about pausing the winter training exercise,
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Now, the Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing Alliance is a very important one.
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So if other countries in this, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are saying,
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you know what, we've got some concerns with our Chinese allies sharing information and training and military tactics with China,
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our impression is that DND, Canadian Armed Forces' reluctance to engage with the People's Liberation Army,
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is not solely related to Ms. Meng, that's Meng Wanzhou of Huawei's arrest,
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and the consular cases referring to the Chinese imprisonment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor,
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that there are other reasons behind their interest in disengaging.
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From our perspective, it also perhaps to be related to a desire to be fully aligned with FEYS,
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whose approach has shifted under the Trump administration.
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So they talk about the need to have a position on China that mirrors that of larger countries
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which when you're a country that should be grateful to be at the table,
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hey, you know what, we think that China's okay,
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even though they're doing all this stuff to you guys.
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But the response from the Trudeau government, from the Civil Service,
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but also we know taking direction from Chrystia Freeland,
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was saying that, no, no, no, if we push too much,
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As per the briefing to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,
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should Canada make significant reductions in its military engagement with China,
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China will likely read this as a retaliatory move related to the Meng Wanzhou case.
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This is not least because China has used reductions in military engagement with the U.S. in recent years
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to signal its dissatisfaction with the U.S.-China trade relationship.
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Such reductions have included reported cancelled visits by senior military personnel and cancelled port visits.
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Earlier on in the same briefing, it talks about the importance of ensuring that we have a continued relationship
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with China and not closing the door to future bilateral engagements, yada, yada, yada.
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So even in saying this, even in saying that, you know what,
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we think it's probably appropriate to push back against this,
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They're saying that this country that might see this as retaliation for the things they're doing that are wrong,
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well, you know what, we don't want to anger them too much.
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So why on earth is appeasing China the top priority?
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Why on earth is, remember, Justin Trudeau's government's whole MO is about, quote-unquote,
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So when the experts in the Canadian Armed Forces are saying,
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listen, we shouldn't do this winter training with them, we shouldn't do this,
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you know what, why is that getting trumped by apparently the need to appease China,
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to keep China happy, even when Australia has brought its issues to us,
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the United States has brought its issues to us.
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And a lot of people who don't really, I think, have respect for the work that the Canadian Armed Forces does
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have been pointing out, oh, it's, you know, winter training, like, what are we, what are we going to do?
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Are we just going to, like, you know, not tell them where to get Canada Goose codes?
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I know a lot of people joke about the winter weather in Canada,
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but as a result, the Canadian military excels at winter combat and winter scenarios.
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So does the Russian military, for that matter, which is a lot closer of a country to China.
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So why don't they just get tips and tricks from Russia?
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China has access to a whole bunch of regions in Asia where they can do cold weather training on their own.
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I'm convinced that China just wants to get into the building.
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China just wants the key into the building, and once they're here, they can go around and do what they want.
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And by having these relationships between People's Liberation Army soldiers and operatives and senior agents and Canadian military,
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you're actually creating a pipeline by which the Chinese military can acquire intelligence.
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And I wouldn't be surprised if they had spies masquerading as soldiers that just want some cold weather training,
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because we know China sends spies in any number of situations.
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Just look at that spy in the U.S., Fang Fang, that was involved in the Democrat former presidential candidate Eric Swalwell.
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Chinese spies in Canada that have infiltrated numerous levels of government.
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They've tried to compromise and in some cases have succeeded at compromising politicians, companies, and so on and so forth.
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Like if Canada were offering some winter weather advice to, I don't know, the Liechtenstein Guard or something.
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And if we keep viewing China in these terms of being our friend and our partner and our ally and all of these things,
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well, knowing, knowing all the shenanigans that China is doing as well, sometimes directly to us or to Canadians,
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China sees us as an easy target, which is why other Five Eyes countries were saying,
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oh, you know, Canada, I'm not sure you should be doing this.
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China's clearly seeing us as an easy target because we are not resolute enough to say no
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and to put our feet down without the government equivocating and going back and forth
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and talking about our friend and ally in China.
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And this is not something that should be embraced at all.
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And I want you to just see the weakness in the response to this from Deputy Prime Minister now,
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This is an exchange between Aaron O'Toole and Chrystia Freeland in question period.
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Now, normally, I try to avoid playing, you know, several minutes of politician speaking,
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but it's important that you hear exactly how brazen the non-answers are by Deputy Prime Minister Freeland.
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Mr. Speaker, months after Canadian citizens were taken hostage by the communist regime in China,
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we learned that the liberals fought hard to keep a close relationship with China.
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In fact, the Deputy Prime Minister fought for Canada to train China's military on Canadian soil
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against the direct advice of the Chief of Defence Staff.
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and with China committing human rights abuses around the world,
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why did the Deputy Prime Minister push hard to partner with them?
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Mr. Speaker, today marks two years since Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arbitrarily detained in China.
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These years have been stolen from Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor,
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I know that all Canadians admire the integrity and strength of character these two men have shown,
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and I would also like to pay tribute to their families.
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The release of these two brave Canadians is an absolute priority for our government.
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Deputy Prime Minister.
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All Canadians are worried about the fate of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.
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while they were stealing the lives of our citizens,
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why was she trying to push the Canadian Armed Forces
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When they're abusing our citizens, our rights, international law,
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why was this government trying to partner with them?
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I have long personal experience reporting on authoritarian communist regimes,
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Canada is appalled by the treatment of the Uyghurs.
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and the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig
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the Minister's actions never match those fine words.
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The Liberals ignored security and scientific experts
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there was risks of knowledge transfer by working with China.
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I'd like to talk a little bit about CanSino and vaccines
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because that's where the Leader of the Opposition began his questions.
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I understand why the Leader of the Official Opposition
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And that's because he and his party spent weeks
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trying to scare Canadians into believing we were at the back of the line.
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Canada has the most robust vaccine portfolio in the world.
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The Leader of the Official Opposition would do better
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were warning about the protection of military secrets,
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were more worried about upsetting the Communist regime in Beijing.
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or, as the Deputy Prime Minister just demonstrated,
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Why are we opening up the gates of CFB Petawawa
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She doesn't address the substance of it at all.