Juno News - China accused of targeting Conservatives ahead of election

00:00:00.000 Beijing targets conservative candidate Joe Tai with fake wanted posters in its latest election

00:00:11.920 interference campaign. Conservative leader Pierre Polia vows to slash the deficit by 70 percent

00:00:17.920 while the liberal plan would pile on even more debt than former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

00:00:23.060 Liberal candidate and former health minister Yara Sachs tried to smear her Jewish opponent

00:00:29.120 with a swastika. Now Jewish voters are demanding she apologizes. Hello Canada it's Wednesday April 23rd 0.80

00:00:37.360 and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosman Georgia. And I'm Noah Jarvis. We've got you covered

00:00:43.300 with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North

00:00:48.360 exclusives you won't hear anywhere else. A federal task force investigating election interference

00:00:59.100 has uncovered yet another online election interference campaign by Beijing. The campaign's objective is

00:01:06.240 alleged to target conservative candidate Joe Tai. The Don Valley North candidate and activist for

00:01:12.520 Hong Kong democracy was subjected to a coordinated repression campaign orchestrated by the Chinese 0.99

00:01:19.660 government according to the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force.

00:01:25.700 This isn't the first time Tai has been a target of Beijing as last year a bounty was placed on his head

00:01:32.740 offering rewards for information leading to his arrest. Tai said in a statement quote the information

00:01:40.340 revealed today is unfortunately not new to me or my volunteers. We have seen these wanted posters and

00:01:48.040 other threats circulating throughout this campaign. They are consistent with the CCP tradecraft similar to

00:01:56.520 the other threats that have been made against me throughout this campaign. It is critical that all

00:02:02.760 political parties and leaders take a clear stand against this foreign interference.

00:02:08.120 Sight announced Monday that there have been posts about Tai's arrest warrant using mock wanted posters in

00:02:15.000 Chinese language pages on several social media sites including WeChat, TikTok, Facebook, Red Note, and Duyin.

00:02:24.440 One Facebook post read that if Tai won his writing that it would be a quote disaster warning the Chinese

00:02:31.240 diaspora community that Canada would become a quote fugitives paradise. According to Sight these kinds of 1.00

00:02:39.320 posts are being made by multiple accounts which were posted and promoted inauthentically within minutes

00:02:45.800 and even seconds of each other. Additionally, Chinese-based social media platforms are suppressing

00:02:51.800 people's ability to find information on Tai, instead bringing users to posts regarding his bounty.

00:02:58.680 This is the same bounty which disgraced liberal candidate Paul Chang told people they could claim if they

00:03:05.320 brought Tai to the Chinese consulate. Rhetoric which was defended by party leader Mark Carney,

00:03:11.960 Chang ultimately stepped down following the RCMP launching an investigation into his actions.

00:03:18.360 Earlier this month, Sight detected another coordinated campaign by a Chinese Communist Party-backed

00:03:25.000 news channel to promote coverage of the liberal leader. Amplified coverage of Carney includes

00:03:31.320 posts identifying him as a quote rock star and highlighting his pro-China views. So Noah,

00:03:37.640 Mark Carney came out with his platform the other day. Have the liberals vowed to crack down on foreign

00:03:46.040 interference? The liberals have made commitments and promises. However, it remains to be seen just to

00:03:52.920 what lengths the liberals decide to go in cracking down on foreign interference. It was well documented that

00:03:58.920 under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, foreign interference in Canadian elections began

00:04:05.560 to become a serious issue, especially in the 2019 and 2021 elections. China extensively interfered in

00:04:14.440 the elections as documented in the report put together by Justice Hoag. In the report, it was documented how

00:04:23.960 China used their influence in the Chinese-Canadian community to disseminate certain negative stereotypes

00:04:32.440 and negative messages about candidates that they felt would harm Chinese interests in the Prime

00:04:39.560 Minister's office while benefiting liberal candidates and other candidates that they felt would look out

00:04:45.560 for the best interests of the People's Republic of China. A good example of this in the 2021 election

00:04:51.880 is when China ran a disinformation campaign against the conservative incumbent Kenny Chu. He was one of the few

00:05:00.360 incumbents that actually lost a seat in the 2021 election and that was in large part due to the fact that

00:05:07.320 China interfered into that election. They spread misinformation and disinformation on Chinese social media

00:05:15.240 apps like WeChat and Douyin about Kenny Chu spreading lies and promoting the Liberal Party as the only party

00:05:24.760 that will look out for the interests of Chinese Canadians. And they also put out a disinformation campaign 0.88

00:05:32.920 and actually a bounty on the head of Conservative MP Michael Chong. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knew

00:05:39.000 about the threat on Chong's life. However, he did not tell Chong about it until the media got hold of the

00:05:46.680 information and reported it publicly. Now, the Liberal government, before Parliament was dissolved, had tabled and

00:05:53.960 passed a piece of legislation that would set up a foreign agents registry. However, this has not been executed.

00:06:01.880 The government has not created this registry yet and has not been enforcing the law because the civil

00:06:09.480 service still needs time in order to implement such a registry. So the 2025 election is not subject to this

00:06:17.640 foreign interference registry. While Mark Carney in the debate, for example, said that China was the biggest

00:06:24.520 threat to Canada's national security, the Liberal Party platform seldom mentions foreign interference.

00:06:31.560 And the threat that it has on Canada's democracy and what the Liberal government intends on doing

00:06:39.160 to combat foreign interference if they are re-elected. Now, the Conservatives, they have been consistent

00:06:46.040 in opposing the Liberal government's approach to handling foreign interference and have said that they would

00:06:53.240 crack down on it. It remains to be seen whether or not a potentially re-elected Liberal government would

00:07:00.040 act quickly to establish the foreign agents registry and if they would take additional measures to crack

00:07:07.560 down on foreign interference. But this is an important issue that many close observers are cautioning

00:07:14.360 that China and potentially even other countries could have an influence on the results of this election.

00:07:19.560 And the targeting of Joe Tay is just one example of the concerted effort by the CCP to ensure that

00:07:28.840 anti-China politicians are not elected to parliament. And if they are able to ensure that critics of China

00:07:36.920 and supporters of Hong Kong are not able to win their election, then it is in the best interest of China.

00:07:43.400 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev released his Costed platform on Monday outlining a plan to reduce the

00:07:51.960 deficit in each of the next four years. In contrast, Liberal leader Mark Carney's platform would see the

00:07:57.480 deficit surge, pledging to increase the debt by more than 70% over the next four years compared to former

00:08:03.560 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Both leaders' plans use the baseline deficits between 2025-2026 and 2029-2030

00:08:11.400 provided by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. While Polyev plans to reduce the initially proposed deficit

00:08:17.880 yearly, Carney's plan would see it skyrocket. The baseline deficit provided by the PBO adds $141.7

00:08:25.160 billion between 2025 and 2026 and 2028-2029. Polyev's plan would see the deficit fall to $100.6

00:08:33.480 billion culminatively over the next four years. Conversely, Carney's Costed plan would see it rise to

00:08:39.720 $224.8 billion in new debt. Carney's platform adds more than $129 billion in new spending over the next four

00:08:48.120 years, largely concentrated in housing, healthcare, infrastructure, and climate initiatives. This means

00:08:54.120 Polyev would spend over $40 billion less than the PBO projection, while Carney would exceed it by more than

00:09:00.440 $80 billion. BC Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Carson Binda, said that Carney's $225 billion in new debt is

00:09:09.480 around $100 billion more than the $131 billion promised by Trudeau in his fall economic statement.

00:09:16.120 Binda said, quote, Interest on our federal debt already costs $1 billion per week,

00:09:21.160 more than Ottawa spends on healthcare payments to the provinces. Carney's plan would see debt

00:09:25.400 interest charges rise by over $5.6 billion over the next four years. Polyev's Costed plan would see it

00:09:31.800 fall by over $2.4 billion in the same timeframe. Polyev celebrated that his plan would reduce the

00:09:37.640 deficit compared to the liberals by 70% by 2029, as the deficit under his leadership would fall to $14.2

00:09:45.080 billion compared to Carney's projected $47.8 billion. Polyev said, quote, The choice is this,

00:09:51.560 a fourth liberal term with Mark Carney, whose reckless liberal plan would add even more debt than Trudeau,

00:09:57.000 or a new conservative government with a responsible plan to save $125 billion and put us

00:10:02.760 back on the path to growth and security. He highlighted that the 70% reduction would be

00:10:07.480 achieved by cutting back on bureaucracy and consultants. Cuts would also be found by cutting

00:10:12.680 foreign aid to dictators, terrorists, and global bureaucracies, along with slashing money for

00:10:17.400 special interest groups and generating half a trillion dollars in economic growth by unlocking

00:10:22.760 Canada's natural resources. So, Cosmin, a lot of money being promised to be splashed around by the

00:10:28.760 Liberal Party once again. Why do you think Mark Carney's platform is so expensive and

00:10:34.200 what does he want to spend taxpayer money on? Right, Noah. So, the Liberals have pledged what is

00:10:39.560 essentially a mammoth deficit. It promises to bring Canada into even more debt than Trudeau was able to

00:10:49.480 accumulate. And if you recall back, there have been studies that show that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

00:10:56.360 accumulated more debt than during the World War I and World War II. Like, the amount of spending is,

00:11:04.760 I don't think Canadians really realize the sheer amount of waste and the quantity of taxpayer money 0.98

00:11:13.880 that was dished out by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to achieve what results, right? The problems that we

00:11:21.640 face as taxpayers are the exact consequences of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prioritized. And when we

00:11:30.120 look at the issues that Mark Carney has prioritized in his own policies and in his own costed platform,

00:11:37.880 you see things like international aid for LGBTQ initiatives overseas, which don't actually help

00:11:46.760 Canadians overall. So, I fully expect that the Liberal government, if they get re-elected,

00:11:54.680 are going to continue that same status quo.

00:12:04.120 Justin Trudeau's former health minister released an attack ad attempting to tie her conservative rival to

00:12:10.280 the Nazi swastika to the Nazi swastika seen at the Freedom Convoy in 2022. However, the ad has backfired

00:12:18.280 with much of the Jewish community it appeared to target. Yara Sachs, the Liberal candidate for York Center,

00:12:26.120 released an ad targeting Roman Baber, the conservative candidate for the same writing. The ad shows a

00:12:32.760 photo of a man photographed on the first day of the Freedom Convoy with a swastika flag. Freedom Convoy

00:12:40.520 organizers had condemned the individual responsible and denied that he was a member of the protest movement.

00:12:48.120 The ad, which was allegedly distributed by Sachs' team, featured an arrow pointing from the swastika flag wielder

00:12:55.880 to a photo of Roman Baber, with the phrase, $53,326,000 raised for Baber by convoy donors. According to

00:13:06.120 Elections Canada, an estimated 14% of Baber and Sachs' riding was Jewish in 2019, making it the fourth

00:13:15.320 largest Jewish population among all federal ridings in Canada. Baber, who is Jewish, responded by highlighting

00:13:23.320 his personal connections to the Holocaust, noting that his great-grandparents were executed by the

00:13:29.880 Nazis in 1941. Baber said, quote, so much family lost on all sides, but the Yara Sachs campaign put a

00:13:39.240 swastika near my picture in an attack piece. Though the flyer attempted to associate Baber with Nazis in a

00:13:47.000 heavily Jewish writing, members of Everything Jewish Toronto on Facebook were outraged, many demanded an

00:13:54.680 apology from Sachs and her team. Some members said Sachs, quote, crossed a line by putting a swastika

00:14:02.920 disturbingly close to her Jewish opponent, who fled the oppressive Soviet Union. Others said the inclusion

00:14:11.240 of the swastika in campaign material was, quote, absolutely despicable. Others noted that this

00:14:17.960 wasn't the first time Sachs was willing to invoke the horrors of the Holocaust to smear her political

00:14:24.680 opponents. During the Freedom Convoy in 2022, Sachs notoriously stood in the House of Commons and claimed

00:14:33.720 that protesters saying honk honk, a reference to the honking of truck horns, was a, quote,

00:14:41.080 acronym for Heil Hitler. Sachs' campaign team had also been accused of inappropriately placing

00:14:49.080 campaign signs to hide Baber's signs in the writing. Baber recently posted that it was Sachs herself

00:14:57.480 who should be scrutinized for her connection with anti-Semites, sharing a photo of Sachs meeting with

00:15:04.660 Mahmoud Abbas, the ruler of the Palestinian Authority. So, Noah, looking back at the Freedom Convoy,

00:15:12.820 I don't think we ever really got any answers about whether the Nazi flag flyer was even connected to

00:15:20.340 the Freedom Convoy. Is there any evidence today they were actually members of the protest?

00:15:27.540 No, there isn't. I remember in that time, a lot of people on social media were trying to associate

00:15:33.780 the person who was waving that Nazi flag with the Freedom Convoy, although no evidence emerged that

00:15:38.900 this person actually believed in the cause, that the Freedom Convoy was trying to get to the Prime

00:15:46.100 Minister. And it's not as if the Freedom Convoy in any way had any messaging that could be connected to

00:15:53.380 the Nazi regime and the Nazi cause. I mean, Nazism is a cause of extreme, despicable authoritarianism, 0.80

00:16:01.300 while the Freedom Convoy, well, it's in the name, they were advocating for freedom from government

00:16:06.900 and positions. Now, True North, back in 2022, put out a call asking for information leading to

00:16:16.020 the discovery of the identity of the person who was waving that flag, although no information

00:16:23.140 that was able to lead to his identity being revealed was ever given to True North. With that said,

00:16:30.340 liberals, they tried their damnedest to connect this person to the conservatives and the Freedom

00:16:35.940 Convoy. Yarra Sachs was one of the MPs who got up in the House of Commons and said that saying honk,

00:16:42.020 honk, which, you know, is something that fifth graders say when they're on their Terry Fox walk and a

00:16:46.740 truck passes by and they try to get it to honk for them. Apparently saying honk, honk is a code for

00:16:54.180 Heil Hitler. No evidence was provided to back up that claim. It's just something that she just said

00:17:00.980 and tried to link to the conservatives. This is all while the conservatives, they have many Jewish 0.99

00:17:07.140 supporters. The deputy leader of the Conservative Party is Melissa Lansman. And Roman Baber himself,

00:17:13.060 the person who is the subject of these attacks, is Jewish. He has family members, great-grandparents

00:17:20.420 who were victims of the Holocaust. So for someone who has a connection to the horrors of the Holocaust,

00:17:27.700 I'm pretty sure it is quite a disgusting attack and it must feel quite awful. I think that a lot of

00:17:36.660 people would point to Yarra Sachs' visit with Mahmoud Abbas as a double standard that she holds and

00:17:44.180 trying and is attempting to try to appeal to Jewish constituents while also trying to appeal to Muslim

00:17:51.140 constituents and talking out of two sides of her mouth. She also has a colleague, Adam Van Coverden,

00:17:59.060 who recently visited a mosque and claimed that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza. She has other

00:18:06.900 colleagues who also claim that Israel is committing a genocide and the liberals, especially Mark Carney,

00:18:14.420 has not provided pushback against the notion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. She also

00:18:22.420 has not been very vocal in condemning the rise in anti-Semitism, especially that has emerged in the

00:18:29.460 streets of Toronto where hate marches can be seen going through the streets of Toronto on a near weekly

00:18:36.900 basis where people are calling for intifada and for Israel to be wiped out from the river to the sea. So it

00:18:45.460 remains to be seen whether or not Yarra Sachs will win re-election and Roman Babber is going to put up a

00:18:52.580 fight to ensure that this doesn't happen. He's been campaigning against Yarra Sachs for years and Don

00:18:59.780 Valley North has a lot of Jewish constituents. I think Elections Canada estimated that roughly 14% of the

00:19:06.980 Don Valley North constituency is Jewish. So they are definitely an important subset of people in

00:19:14.180 this riding that can determine the results of this election. So if there's high turnout in favor of

00:19:21.700 the conservatives by the Jewish community, it might mean that Yarra Sachs might lose her bid for re-election.

00:19:28.420 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

00:19:38.180 subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with a

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Juno News - April 23, 2025

China accused of targeting Conservatives ahead of election

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