Juno News - Did Trudeau finally criticize China？

00:00:00.000 Why won't Justin Trudeau criticize China? That's what we've been asking for well over a year. Well,

00:00:11.260 I've got a development on this file that kind of leans towards good news. Justin Trudeau has

00:00:15.660 criticized China when it comes to the new law they've introduced to clamp down on Hong Kong.

00:00:21.240 He said it under no uncertain terms just the other day. And well, kudos to him,

00:00:25.580 although it was a long time coming. Now, the prime minister, he also said that he would encourage

00:00:30.960 any of the 300,000 people residing in Hong Kong who have Canadian citizenship to return to Canada,

00:00:38.400 to come here whenever they feel uncomfortable, whenever they feel unsafe. I think that's a

00:00:43.560 great message to send, but keep in mind they are Canadian citizens, so you don't ever really need

00:00:49.200 to tell citizens explicitly you're welcome in the country. That is a default. What I wonder is why

00:00:55.000 Justin Trudeau has not done is hashtag welcome to Canada that he controversially did back in 2017,

00:01:00.960 and that is believed to have played a significant role in creating the illegal border crisis

00:01:05.460 at Roxham Road. Justin Trudeau, he's able to hashtag and virtue signal in certain situations,

00:01:11.640 but apparently not able to do it here on the Hong Kong file. A year ago, there were a lot of

00:01:17.540 protesters who were calling out for liberty, and they had the law enforcement clamping down on them a lot.

00:01:23.220 There were arrests for people who were really doing nothing wrong. I spoke to one of the leaders

00:01:27.760 of the student protest, Joshua Wong, a number of times back when that was happening. He himself

00:01:32.400 was arrested, and we heard nothing from Justin Trudeau. It was almost like it wasn't happening

00:01:37.200 at all. And these were people who should be allies of ours, who are a democratic nation,

00:01:42.980 who are a country, in many respects, a lot like Canada. You would think that we would feel a kinship

00:01:47.780 with them, and that we would be there for them right away. But no, Trudeau shied away from supporting

00:01:52.700 Hong Kong, perhaps because it meant, in turn, he would be criticizing China.

00:01:56.960 So I will applaud the Prime Minister for saying what he said this time around. It's the right time.

00:02:01.520 But it's funny how on some issues, he has the tweet ready minutes after the first news story breaks,

00:02:07.160 whereas when it comes to the Hong Kong file, it seems like it's taken Justin Trudeau many,

00:02:11.840 many months just to step up and do the bare minimum. Well, I remain the optimist, and I hope we'll hear

00:02:17.560 more from the Liberal government in terms of supporting Hong Kong, but it remains to be seen.

Juno News - June 06, 2020