Juno News - How deep are Mark Carney's China ties？

00:00:00.000 Questions are piling up about Liberal leader Mark Carney and Brookfield Asset Management's

00:00:09.660 ties to the communist government in China. A former Vancouver mayor who was an early advocate

00:00:14.640 of drug decriminalization has thrown his hat into federal politics as a liberal candidate.

00:00:20.000 Mark Carney's advisor and Century Initiative co-founder Mark Wiseman once implied that

00:00:25.640 screening immigrants was a waste of time for Canada. Hello Canada, it's Thursday March 27th 0.97

00:00:31.580 and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux. And I'm Jeff Knight.

00:00:36.240 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories

00:00:40.560 of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:48.500 Liberal Party of Canada leader Mark Carney can't seem to shake his controversial past work with

00:00:54.120 the investing firm Brookfield Asset Management. The company's investments and ties to the communist

00:01:00.300 government in China have the Liberal leader dogged by accusations of foreign conflicts of interest.

00:01:06.680 Conservative leader Pierre Polievre sounded the alarm over what he calls Carney's potential

00:01:11.640 conflicts of interest with China. Polievre pointed to the Liberal leader's ties to a company that

00:01:16.880 allegedly secured a massive loan from a Chinese state bank just weeks after Carney allegedly secretly

00:01:23.820 met with the deputy governor of the Chinese central bank. Polievre outlined the questionable timeline

00:01:30.000 in a post to X. On September 9, 2024, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Carney the chair of a

00:01:38.020 task force on economic growth. The following month, Carney met with the deputy director of the People's Bank of

00:01:44.500 China. According to Polievre and a Chinese language news article he cited in the Post, then a few weeks

00:01:51.320 later, Brookfield allegedly secured a $250 million loan from a Chinese state-owned bank. The conservatives

00:01:59.160 previously demanded that Carney reveal his Brookfield stock options to Canadians, accusing the Liberal leader

00:02:04.960 of raking in millions from his past business. Carney subsequently admitted to potential conflicts of

00:02:10.700 interest, saying that he would, quote, probably, have to accuse himself from decisions on some files.

00:02:17.020 Polievre questioned whether Carney could be trusted to act in Canada's interest, given the uncertainty

00:02:22.520 surrounding his financial assets. A spokesperson from the Liberal Party of Canada responded to True

00:02:28.100 North about Polievre's accusations. The Liberal spokesperson said, quote,

00:02:32.880 This is a desperate attempt by Pierre Polievre to distract from the fact that he refuses to get his

00:02:38.640 security clearance at a time of crisis for Canada. Whether it's not getting his security clearance or

00:02:43.640 his friend Daniel Smith confirming he'd follow Donald Trump's playbook, Pierre Polievre is the wrong choice

00:02:49.480 at the wrong time. So, Jeff, how much money does Carney hold in Brookfield stock options? How has Carney

00:02:56.200 responded to questions about his assets in the past? Yeah, Isaac, according to Brookfield Asset

00:03:01.540 Management's annual 10K filing, Carney held options on more than 409,000 shares at the end of 2024,

00:03:08.760 with an average strike price of $37.54. At that time, those options were valued at $6.8 million US.

00:03:17.400 But with the stock's performance shifting since then, Brookfield shares were trading around $86.26

00:03:23.240 Canadian in early 2025. Per some reports, that value has likely ballooned. Adjusting for exchange rates and

00:03:29.900 market movement, that suggests that those options could now be worth upwards of $20 million Canadian,

00:03:34.760 possibly more, depending on the latest trading day. As for how Carney's handled questions about

00:03:39.360 his assets in the past, he's been slippery at best. During a March 17, 2025 news conference in London,

00:03:45.740 he dodged reporters pressing him on the specifics of his financial holdings,

00:03:49.500 insisting he's followed the rules set by Parliament and the Ethics Commissioner. He got pretty testy,

00:03:54.120 accusing the media of inventing new standards and pivoting to jab at Pierre Polievre's lack of security

00:03:59.160 clearance instead of giving a straight answer. Later, on March 18, he admitted there could be

00:04:03.920 conflicts of interest tied to Brookfield, saying he'd probably recuse himself from certain decisions

00:04:08.300 if they impacted the firm significantly. It's a vague nod to the issue without actually laying out

00:04:12.920 what he owns or how deep those ties go, leaving plenty of room for suspicion about where his loyalties

00:04:17.320 might lie. So it's safe to say that transparency is not exactly his strong suit here.

00:04:21.620 As the former mayor of Vancouver, liberal candidate for Fraser View South Vancouver,

00:04:29.100 Gregor Robertson, advocated for harmful drug decriminalization policies. Robertson,

00:04:34.520 who officially announced his candidacy on Saturday, has a well-documented record of being in favor of

00:04:39.480 radical drug liberalization and decriminalization policies. As mayor of Vancouver from 2008 to 2018,

00:04:46.840 Robertson was a vocal advocate for the decriminalization of personal drug possession,

00:04:50.700 viewing it as a critical component in addressing the opioid overdose crisis. In 2017, he wrote a

00:04:56.980 letter to a House of Commons committee in support of safe injection sites and said, quote,

00:05:01.860 expressions of community support or opposition should not be relevant to the federal government's

00:05:06.660 approval process. A year later, Robertson said, quote, decriminalizing possession would save many

00:05:13.220 lives. This was during a 2018 press conference. During the same press conference, Robertson said,

00:05:19.840 increasing public access to fentanyl and heroin would be, quote, a life-saving shift. At that time,

00:05:26.620 there were roughly 100 overdose deaths per month across B.C., a number that has increased significantly,

00:05:32.620 with 2,511 overdose deaths reported in 2023, according to data from B.C. Emergency Health Services.

00:05:40.180 In early 2023, the British Columbia government, in conjunction with the Trudeau government,

00:05:45.720 initiated a three-year pilot project decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of certain illicit

00:05:51.580 drugs, aiming to, quote, reduce stigma and to encourage individuals to seek help. However,

00:05:58.240 the province had faced challenges related to public consumption near child care spaces and associated

00:06:03.400 safety concerns, leading to B.C. NDP Premier David Eby to reverse course and end the program.

00:06:09.220 Isaac, what are some other positions Robertson advocated when he was the mayor of Vancouver?

00:06:14.120 Yeah, Jeff. Interestingly, the Conservative Party of Canada actually issued a release highlighting some

00:06:19.320 of Robertson's past, saying that recruiting a drug liberalization radical made Kearney even worse than

00:06:26.860 former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They called Robertson a, quote, radical drug liberalization

00:06:31.880 anti-resource activist. They also highlighted his record as mayor, per your question. They showed data,

00:06:38.600 highlighting that during Robertson's tenure, housing prices increased by 149%, housing taxes increased

00:06:46.540 by 141%, and drug overdoses increased by a staggering 600%. You already mentioned his thoughts on the

00:06:55.560 Liberals' failed decriminalization experiment in B.C., which, as the data just highlighted, saw drug

00:07:02.000 overdose rates skyrocket, along with the letter he wrote to the House of Commons Committee. But he also called

00:07:08.100 for the government to provide more access to prescription opioids, which the Conservatives argued advocated

00:07:14.200 for the same drug that resulted in mass diversion to children. Robertson also urged banning natural gas

00:07:20.480 in Vancouver by 2050. We've seen other left-wing leaders take a similar approach in the past, although many of

00:07:28.360 them have recently allegedly changed course. After we saw an energy shift towards more pro-energy nationwide in

00:07:36.380 response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats and Canada's push to become more energy

00:07:43.560 sovereign, the Conservative Party of Canada finally said, quote,

00:07:47.560 just like Mark Carney, Gregor Robertson has been exactly wrong on every important issue.

00:07:56.240 The Century Initiative co-founder and Liberal leader Mark Carney's U.S. relations advisor once said

00:08:02.520 that screening immigrants was a waste of time and the country should, quote, 0.99

00:08:06.900 let people in by and large. Carney appointed Mark Wiseman to his 18-person Canada-U.S. relations

00:08:13.740 advisory council. The council, first established by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

00:08:19.040 is made up of appointed advisors, including former premiers Rachel Notley and Jean Charest.

00:08:24.400 Wiseman's role in founding the Century Initiative, a mass immigration advocacy group that wants to see

00:08:29.380 Canada's population skyrocket to 100 million people by the end of the century has come under closer

00:08:35.520 scrutiny. In a resurfaced viral clip from an event co-hosted by the Century Initiative and the Globe and

00:08:41.740 Mail, Wiseman once discussed loosening immigration controls. Part of the answer here is a private sector

00:08:49.400 answer. Let the private sector move to bring people in and facilitate them being able to do that.

00:08:55.760 And, you know, a lot of the screening and other stuff that we do, frankly, is just bureaucracy. It's a waste

00:09:03.100 of time. Let's let people in by and large. And if we have to do the screening ex post, that's fine. I can tell you

00:09:10.140 bad guys and bad women probably find their way into this country through means other than applying through 1.00

00:09:17.520 permanent reticency. Like, like, let's just face that, right? So, so, um, we just need to sort of take this on as a challenge and a problem, have KPIs, and then partner with with the private sector. I mean, look at this

00:09:33.400 acronymistic way of these labor market opinions, those who, um, those who've tried to hire somebody

00:09:40.080 from outside the country to do a job in Canada. I mean, it's crazy. Guess what? A Canadian firm wants to

00:09:45.520 hire somebody from outside the country. They've identified them, they interviewed them, they want

00:09:49.040 to pay them, and that individual is going to be taxes in Canada. Approved. What's that, there's, there's, what's that mortgage

00:09:53.960 ad? Approved, right? Like, we've got to, we should get those guys, uh, to be running our, our, uh, immigration system.

00:09:59.740 In an interview with Bloomberg Markets, Wiseman spoke about the need for the liberal government to bring in closer to 500,000

00:10:06.540 people per year. Former liberal immigration minister Sean Frazier eventually raised the government's 2025 target to 500,000

00:10:14.300 permanent residents in his 2022 immigration plan. On Tuesday, Frazier announced he would return to politics and run for

00:10:21.260 re-election in his central Nova riding despite previously backing out from politics last year. Frazier's decision to raise the

00:10:27.960 permanent residence target to 500,000 people per year earned him the praise of Century Initiative CEO Lissa Lalonde. This figure does not

00:10:36.600 include those holding temporary visas or asylum applicants. When including those figures, the annual rate of immigration would be

00:10:43.560 around 2.2 million people per year. Lalonde wrote in a press release, quote, Century Initiative commends the government for

00:10:50.760 recognizing the important role that immigration plays in our economic and social prosperity. Today's announcement is a

00:10:56.440 positive step forward for the country. Century Initiative welcomes the opportunity to continue working with the government to

00:11:02.440 secure a prosperous future for Canadians. So, Jeff, has Carney addressed Wiseman's appointment? What does conservative leader

00:11:09.720 Pierre Polivre have to say about it? Yeah, Mark Carney has indeed addressed the appointment of Mark Wiseman to his Canada-U.S.

00:11:16.200 Relations Advisory Council, though he's kept it pretty measured. When pressed by reporters during a Friday press

00:11:21.640 conference at a First Minister's meeting, right around the time the campaign kicked off on March 21st,

00:11:26.280 he distanced himself from Wiseman's more radical immigration views. Carney made it clear that Wiseman's

00:11:31.080 role was strictly about Canada-U.S. relations, not immigration policy, saying that Wiseman will not be

00:11:36.840 advising me on matters relating to immigration. He's been pitching a more moderate line himself, promising to

00:11:42.040 scale immigration back to pre-pandemic levels, which suggests he's trying to dodge any blowback from

00:11:46.920 Wiseman's Century Initiative baggage. It's a calculated move. Carney's playing the pragmatic card,

00:11:51.880 focusing on trade and Trump, instead of population targets. Pierre Polivre, on the other hand,

00:11:56.600 has been all over this. He's seized on Wiseman's appointment as a golden opportunity to hammer

00:12:01.080 Carney and the Liberals. At a pre-writ event in suburban Ottawa on March 21st, he flat-out said,

00:12:06.680 By bringing on Mr. Wiseman, it shows that Mark Carney supports the Liberal Century Initiative to

00:12:11.480 nearly triple our population to 100 million people. He's framing it as proof that Carney's

00:12:16.280 just Trudeau 2.0, doubling down on what he calls a radical liberal agenda on immigration.

00:12:21.880 Poliev's been relentless, tweeting about it, rallying his base, and promising to stop the 0.97

00:12:26.680 Radical Century Initiative at his Ottawa campaign launch on March 23rd. He's painting Wiseman's past 0.83

00:12:32.040 comments, like that clip about skipping immigrant screening, as a smoking gun for liberal recklessness,

00:12:37.720 tying it to housing shortages and economic strain. It's classic Poliev,

00:12:41.880 loud, hunchy, and leaning hard into the populist vibe.

00:12:48.440 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes

00:12:52.920 every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it,

00:12:57.880 make sure to hit us with a 5-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - March 27, 2025

How deep are Mark Carney's China ties？

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