Juno News - March 09, 2023


Conservative MP blasts Melanie Joly for weak response to Chinese election interference

Topics
visas denied diplomats election interference
Mentioned
Cooper Tong Tony Blinken Michael Jolie Madam Jenny Kong
Alberta says no to Justin Trudeau's gun grab Will Trudeau do anything about Roxham Road？ (Ft. Aaron Wudrick)

Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

139.8

Word count

839

Sentence count

86

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Jolie Borden and her counterpart, Jenny Chiao, respond to a question from the committee on China's interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. They also discuss illegal police stations, election interference, and more.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 through you, Madam Chair, to Minister Jolie.
00:00:03.980 You've talked tough.
00:00:05.520 You've talked tough with your Beijing counterparts, so you say.
00:00:10.580 You even stared into his eyes.
00:00:12.960 I'm sure he was very intimidated.
00:00:15.860 And now we learned today, or yesterday, in the Globe and Mail,
00:00:21.400 very conveniently, that a visa was denied of a diplomat
00:00:29.280 who wanted to work at the Canadian Beijing Embassy.
00:00:34.080 One visa? Is that it? One visa?
00:00:38.580 How many visas have been denied? Just one?
00:00:42.340 So I want to comment on your question, and particularly the beginning,
00:00:46.460 because I think it's actually...
00:00:49.460 Madam, I'm going to pause time. I'm pausing time.
00:00:54.640 I'm pausing time.
00:00:55.480 Our approach here is very important.
00:01:01.400 So I would just say be mindful.
00:01:03.440 Mr. Cooper, earlier one of your colleagues had said,
00:01:06.800 we want to make sure how much time we speak, the response is given.
00:01:09.920 You spoke for 43 seconds.
00:01:11.940 The minister will be given close to the same time.
00:01:15.240 You are at 10 seconds already done.
00:01:17.540 Minister.
00:01:18.540 Thank you.
00:01:19.100 Well, Mr. Cooper, you would know China because you went to China as a parliamentarian in the past.
00:01:24.180 And so, therefore, I think you would understand that when we fall into too much partisanship,
00:01:33.020 we're falling into China's trap, which is trying to... 0.85
00:01:35.520 Madam Minister, for you, Madam Chair, how many visas of Beijing diplomats have been denied?
00:01:41.140 Is it just one? How many?
00:01:42.400 I can give you, under my watch, what I can tell you is that there was a visa that was not granted back this fall.
00:01:51.640 And so what?
00:01:52.520 Okay, thank you for answering that.
00:01:54.160 One visa denied under your watch.
00:01:57.940 Minutes ago...
00:01:58.360 And I just wanted to...
00:01:59.660 No, it's my time.
00:02:00.600 No, no, no.
00:02:01.200 Madam Chair, Madam Chair, my time is limited.
00:02:03.720 Oh, it's for you to understand.
00:02:05.480 Minister.
00:02:06.220 Okay, pause.
00:02:07.200 Pause.
00:02:07.500 I just want to make sure that we all understand that it's a diplomatic visa.
00:02:11.260 So, it is a diplomatic visa.
00:02:13.860 Obviously, we have visas for the Chinese community.
00:02:15.800 My question was prefaced on how many diplomatic visas.
00:02:18.700 One, you've answered that question.
00:02:21.640 You said moments ago that Beijing's ambassador, Kong, has been summoned on many occasions.
00:02:31.340 It's true that the ambassador has been summoned with respect to the balloon incident, with respect to illegal police stations, but not on election interference.
00:02:44.160 Why?
00:02:44.380 We've summoned the ambassador on many, many subjects, including foreign interference of all sorts, including within our democracy.
00:02:52.280 On election interference?
00:02:54.320 Yes or no?
00:02:55.400 Like I said, yes.
00:02:57.460 And maybe, Jenny, you can add to that, because the department would know, of course.
00:03:02.120 Thank you, Madam Chair.
00:03:04.220 I would just like to add that Ambassador Tong, diplomatic representations were made to Ambassador Tong by senior officials at GAC on February 24th.
00:03:15.620 With respect to interference in the 2019 and 21 elections?
00:03:19.820 Based on the, yes, that is correct.
00:03:21.940 Okay, thank you for that.
00:03:25.700 Madam Minister, it's been more than six months since we learned of illegal police stations operating in Canada by Beijing.
00:03:35.600 We just learned in the last 24 hours that there are two operating in Montreal, one in Broussard, one in Montreal, within 30 minutes of your riding.
00:03:44.980 And yet, six months later, election interference, illegal police stations, tough talk, but not a single diplomat expelled.
00:03:57.360 Why not?
00:03:58.900 So, when it comes to police stations, the RCMP has confirmed that they have been closed.
00:04:05.960 And so, my colleague, Minister of Public Safety, has also given a lot of information on that aspect before.
00:04:12.460 Of course, we will not tolerate any form of foreign interference, including police stations. 0.91
00:04:19.240 I've been having many conversations with my colleagues around the world on this issue, particularly Tony Blinken, again, last week.
00:04:26.000 And we will work within the Five Eyes to identify any form of foreign interference, including...
00:04:34.620 One visa denied, not a single diplomat expelled.
00:04:39.120 ...hardly the actions of a government that takes Beijing's interference seriously.
00:04:44.400 Minister, when you last appeared before this committee on December 13th, you said repeatedly, unequivocally,
00:04:52.720 that you had no information about Beijing's interference in the 2019 and 21 elections.
00:04:59.360 How is it that the Globe and Mail and Global News have information based on their review of CSIS documents about significant interference by Beijing in the 2019 and 21 elections?
00:05:14.280 But you, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, know nothing.
00:05:17.600 How is that possible?
00:05:18.480 Well, when it comes to activities of foreign actors in the country, the Foreign Affairs Minister was not made aware.
00:05:27.720 And since then, I've made sure that that changed, that that would not be the case.
00:05:32.120 Because obviously, as everybody around this table would be aware...
00:05:35.720 You've asked to be briefed. You didn't know anything in December, but...
00:05:38.880 Can I just finish my sentence, please, Michael?
00:05:41.080 So, obviously, in the context, as colleagues around this table would agree, as Minister of Foreign Affairs,
00:05:49.600 I need to make sure that I have access to that information in order to conduct our diplomatic relationships in a good way.
00:05:57.760 Thank you.
00:05:58.540 ...in the Canadian's interest.
00:05:59.080 Thank you.