Juno News - Election watchdog flags China-linked campaign to boost Mark Carney

00:00:00.000 Canada's election interference watchdog flagged a coordinated campaign by a Chinese state media

00:00:11.020 outlet promoting coverage of Liberal leader Mark Carney. The candidate nominated by the

00:00:16.120 Liberals to replace disgraced MP Paul Chang was videotaped singing an anthem glorifying

00:00:21.580 communist China. A new real estate study found that most Canadians desire single detached homes

00:00:28.120 and not condos when buying a new house. Hello Canada, it's Tuesday April 8th and this is the

00:00:33.920 True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all the

00:00:39.200 news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives

00:00:44.540 you won't hear anywhere else. The task force dedicated to securing Canada's elections from

00:00:53.240 foreign interference announced it has detected a coordinated campaign by a Chinese Communist

00:00:58.920 Party-backed news channel to promote coverage of Liberal leader Mark Carney. Amplified coverage of

00:01:05.720 Carney includes posts identifying him as a quote rock star and highlighting his pro-China views.

00:01:12.600 On Monday, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force revealed it had

00:01:17.360 quote detected a state-backed Chinese WeChat news platform has been attempting to quote influence

00:01:24.800 the Chinese diaspora's views of Carney. Attempts include amplifying his experience and credentials.

00:01:31.680 We are aware of an information operation targeting the 45th general election on the social media platform

00:01:38.880 WeChat. The information operation was launched by Yoli Yomian, WeChat's most popular news account.

00:01:47.360 Intelligence reporting links the Yoli Yomian account to the PRC, Chinese Communist Party,

00:01:53.120 Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. The content of this information operation contains

00:01:59.680 story about the Prime Minister, Liberal Party of Canada leader and candidate Indo-Pian Mark Carney.

00:02:08.320 This content has been amplified in a coordinated and inauthentic way.

00:02:12.000 This information operation had contrasting positive and negative narratives,

00:02:18.080 first amplifying Mr. Carney's stance with the United States and then targeting his experience and credentials.

00:02:25.600 The site task force assesses that the foreign state-backed information operation was intended to

00:02:30.720 influence Canadian Chinese communities and look to mold perceptions about the candidate.

00:02:35.760 The task force included links to Yoli Yomian, which saw the publication referring to Carney as a

00:02:43.440 quote, tough Prime Minister to deal with US President Donald Trump, a quote, rock star economist,

00:02:50.560 and that he plans to deepen quote, economic and trade cooperation with China as the first technocratic

00:02:57.440 Prime Minister in Canadian history. According to the task force, the Chinese state influence operation

00:03:03.680 first amplified Carney's quote, stance with the United States and then boosted quote, his experience and

00:03:09.600 credentials. The Chinese state-backed news account Yuli Yomian has a history of targeting members of

00:03:16.480 parliament in the past including Michael Chong in 2023 and more recently Chrystia Freeland during the

00:03:23.600 liberal leadership race in January. WeChat is a popular Chinese language messaging platform used worldwide by over 1.3

00:03:32.400 billion people. I think one of the contrasting points for Canadian voters between Mark Carney and Pierre

00:03:39.840 Polyev is attitudes towards China. Now the conservatives have been uncompromising when it comes to Chinese

00:03:48.320 interference. They've wanted to decouple the Canadian economy as much as possible from China. And I'd like to 0.91

00:03:55.040 remind people we are currently facing multiple tariffs from China. China is in many senses of the word

00:04:01.600 engaged in an economic war with Canada and Canadian industry. So for the Liberals to continuously present

00:04:10.800 themselves as wanting to deepen economic ties, more trade relationships with China, having more laxed attitudes towards

00:04:20.480 China, and we've seen this in the past with their refusal to actually implement a foreign agent registry. It does raise a lot of

00:04:29.040 concerns, especially among Chinese diaspora dissident groups, including Hong Kong Watch, which is quoted in this article if you check out

00:04:38.160 the piece on our website. But Jeff, what are some of the other concerning examples of Carney's attitude or views that he's expressed towards China?

00:04:48.640 Yeah, Cosman, Mark Carney's track record on China raises some serious red flags. For one, he recently stood by former Liberal MP Paul Chang

00:04:57.120 after Chang suggested kidnapping a conservative rival to claim a bounty from the Chinese government. On March 31st, Carney called it a

00:05:04.560 teachable moment after Chang apologized. But his decision to keep Chang as a candidate, despite the gravity of the comment, suggests a

00:05:11.840 troubling leniency towards actions that align with Chinese interests. It's a stance that makes you question how firm he'd be against

00:05:18.020 Beijing in general. Then there's his time in the private sector. While chair of Brookfield Asset Management, Carney allegedly secured a

00:05:25.120 $250 million loan from a Chinese state-owned bank in late 2024, just weeks after reportedly meeting with the deputy governor of the

00:05:33.520 People's Bank of China. This was right after Justin Trudeau named him chair of an economic growth task force

00:05:39.360 on September 9th, 2024. This is a timeline that screams potential conflict of interest. Brookfield, under Carney's

00:05:45.760 watch, also held over $3 billion in investments tied to Chinese state-linked firms, including real estate and

00:05:52.480 energy deals, which only deepens the concern about his financial ties to China. Carney's own words don't help his case

00:05:58.480 see there. Back in 2016, while speaking at the Toronto Board of Trade, he gushed about China, saying,

00:06:04.240 one of the many strengths of China is their perspective, and praised their ambitious leadership

00:06:08.960 for creating profit opportunities in their so-called green capital market. It's the kind of glowing rhetoric

00:06:14.080 that sounds more like a sales pitch rather than a critical assessment of a foreign regime known for

00:06:18.560 its authoritarian grip. The Liberal candidate picked to replace disgraced Liberal MP Paul Chang in Markham

00:06:27.120 Unionville, was videotaped singing a patriotic Chinese communist anthem, and was a board member

00:06:32.800 of a private school flagged in Canada's recent foreign interference inquiry. The Liberals nominated

00:06:38.000 former Toronto Police Service Deputy Chief Peter Yuen to replace Chang in his former writing after the

00:06:43.520 disgraced Liberal MP, suggested supporters turn in a conservative opponent to the Chinese embassy in

00:06:48.560 return for a bounty. Videos have since emerged of Yuen singing My Chinese Heart, a Chinese communist 0.99

00:06:54.800 patriotic song. The song has been frequently used by the People's Republic of China to impose its

00:06:59.840 nationalism onto minority communities. Buddhist monks were forced to sing the song to celebrate the

00:07:04.960 70th anniversary of communist China. In the video, Yuen can be seen singing the patriotic anthem while in

00:07:11.120 Yuen also joined the board of NOIC Academy in 2024, a private school flagged by Canada's independent

00:07:30.960 investigation into foreign interference, the Hogue Commission. NOIC Academy was cited by intelligence

00:07:36.640 reports for suspected election meddling concerns. The intelligence report suggested that the Toronto

00:07:41.760 Chinese consulate pressured students by threatening their families in China if they didn't vote for

00:07:46.240 preferred candidate in Don Valley North, the riding of Hong Kong dissident and conservative candidate

00:07:51.200 Joe Tay. Yuen was brought in only after Chang stepped down due to public backlash when reports emerged that

00:07:57.360 he had suggested to Chinese media that anyone could kidnap Tay and take him to the Chinese consulate for a bounty.

00:08:03.840 Tay was born in Hong Kong, a region now under control by the CCP with increasingly limited freedoms,

00:08:09.920 something that Tay has fought against publicly in the media. So Cosmin, did intelligence authorities

00:08:14.720 have anything else to say about this situation? Yeah, so this all roots back to Han Dong's nomination

00:08:21.840 meeting. And if you recall back in the day when the China interference allegations first came out about

00:08:27.520 the 2021 and 2019 election, it was alleged that students, international students, were bussed out

00:08:35.120 to Han Dong's nomination meeting with the Liberal Party and where he was nominated as the Liberal candidate.

00:08:42.240 And while Dong has denied any wrongdoing or interference on his own part, there was a declassified CSIS summary

00:08:50.480 that pinpointed NYC Academy suggesting and alleging that somehow international students were issued veiled threats

00:09:01.520 by the Chinese government, either people tied to the Chinese consulate or the Chinese government itself

00:09:08.320 to go and participate. And it's unclear. There has been no specific names or individuals named in this

00:09:17.520 particular instance, but this was CSIS intelligence that was being provided to the government. And that

00:09:24.400 resulted in appearance of mentions to this student issue, international student issue, in several studies,

00:09:32.000 including the Hogue Commission. Among the threats that were quoted or cited by the media, including the Globe and Mail,

00:09:39.120 was that students were threatened with their student visas being cancelled, or also their families in China

00:09:46.480 facing discipline or consequences if they didn't do what the Chinese government said.

00:09:51.120 And we know this is the modus operandi of the Chinese government. That's what they rely on

00:09:57.280 to clamp down on any dissidents in the Chinese diaspora. They threatened them with, you know, diplomatic

00:10:05.120 consequences like having their visa cancelled or personal consequences like seeing their family at home suffer.

00:10:11.600 A new survey shows that most Canadians want single detached homes and prioritize having a backyard as

00:10:20.960 a priority when considering buying a new house. A new survey by WAHI, a team of real estate experts,

00:10:27.760 found that having a backyard is the single most important home feature for the majority of Canadians.

00:10:33.680 The survey ranked 27 different housing attributes and amenities. The survey reads, quote,

00:10:39.920 more than three quarters, 81% of Canadians say that if they were in the market for a new home to rent

00:10:45.600 or own, a backyard is important. Additionally, a majority of respondents said they wanted a single

00:10:51.440 family home at 61%, compared to the 24%, who said they preferred living in a condo or apartment.

00:10:58.560 Another cohort of 11% said they weren't sure, while 4% were considering other options.

00:11:04.880 Another highly desired feature among Canadians is a separate entrance.

00:11:08.880 Meanwhile, another important feature was to have a finished basement, which they strongly preferred

00:11:14.720 at 42%. This may in part be due to their desire to rent out a portion of their home to alleviate

00:11:21.120 mortgage costs. 39% said that having a parking garage was a desired attribute.

00:11:27.120 Jeff, we're well into the election campaign now. Both parties have presented a vision. It might not be their

00:11:34.800 full policy. We haven't seen their full platforms out yet, but they've made a lot of statements and

00:11:39.440 announcements related to housing. How do these policies compare when we're talking about the two

00:11:46.240 leading parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals? The Conservatives under Pierre Polyev are laser

00:11:52.160 focused on speeding up home building and cutting costs for buyers. They're offering a tax cut for homes under

00:11:58.160 1.3 million dollars, which gives buyers a bit more breathing room. They're also tying federal funding to

00:12:03.920 results. Cities have to boost home building by 15% annually or they lose cash, with penalties stacking

00:12:09.680 up each year that they fall short. There's an incentive for them too. They're offering building bonuses for

00:12:14.400 cities that exceed targets. To tackle delays, they're slashing six-figure salaries for bureaucrats who stall

00:12:20.000 approvals, and they're mandating that the CMHC greenlights projects within 60 days or faces consequences. It's a plan that aims to get more

00:12:27.760 single-family homes built faster by clearing out red tape and incentivizing construction, which aligns

00:12:33.200 better with the survey's findings on what Canadians want. On the other hand, the Liberals' big policy

00:12:38.240 is a tax cut for homes under 1 million dollars, lifted straight from the Conservatives, but with a lower cap

00:12:43.920 so that it helps fewer buyers. Beyond that, their plan falls flat on addressing the root issues. They're not

00:12:49.600 tackling the red tape or the gatekeepers blocking development, and the CMHC is still a mess, delaying approvals

00:12:55.040 while handing out millions in bonuses to staff, even as housing prices soar. So instead of streamlining,

00:13:01.040 they're creating a new bureaucracy called Build Canada Homes, which sounds more like government

00:13:05.760 bloat to me. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes

00:13:13.920 every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it,

00:13:19.760 make sure to hit us with a 5-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - April 08, 2025

Election watchdog flags China-linked campaign to boost Mark Carney

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