Juno News - January 26, 2019


John McCallum has gone and blown it


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

187.56094

Word Count

577

Sentence Count

42


Summary

John McCallum's explanation for why he misspoke about Meng Wanzhou's case in a press conference, and why it matters to the Prime Minister, and the Chinese government's response to it, raises the question of whether he was actually doing the PM's bidding, or was he going rogue?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, is anybody out there buying John McCallum's explanation, his walk back, whatever
00:00:10.320 he wants to call it, where he says he misspoke the other day in that press conference?
00:00:14.680 This was not a misspeak.
00:00:16.080 A misspeak is what you do when you, oh I don't know, you just say the wrong word or so forth,
00:00:20.640 you say an off-the-cuff remark, you put out a tweet without really thinking about it.
00:00:24.680 This was a press conference, a prearranged one, where they invited Chinese language media
00:00:29.760 only in Markham, the city north of GTA.
00:00:32.880 They did not invite English language media.
00:00:34.880 English language media were floored by it, CBC, CTV, everyone else waking up in the morning
00:00:38.780 saying, what on earth just happened?
00:00:40.760 And he sits down and he gives a long speech, he gives a long statement where he adds three
00:00:46.880 arguments for why he thinks Meng Wanzhou has a good case to fight the extradition.
00:00:52.180 You misspoke.
00:00:53.960 You had to plan this.
00:00:55.520 You had to sit down.
00:00:56.520 You had to say, well what are my arguments going to be?
00:00:58.940 How am I going to articulate them?
00:01:00.560 You write them down.
00:01:01.560 You send out the invitation.
00:01:03.060 Give us a break.
00:01:04.600 So we got a problem here because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said two things.
00:01:07.780 He's been asked, do you agree with this?
00:01:09.420 And Christy Freeland was asked as well.
00:01:11.200 And they just turn around and they say, well rule of law matters and will prevail in Canada.
00:01:15.060 Yeah, that's not what you were asked.
00:01:16.820 They dodged the question.
00:01:18.420 Then they were asked, will you fire John McCallum?
00:01:20.660 He said, no, not going to happen.
00:01:22.180 Let's not get distracted by this.
00:01:23.960 This is not a distraction.
00:01:26.420 John McCallum, who was an MP and was a cabinet minister, is now a diplomat.
00:01:30.580 He is a public servant.
00:01:32.040 He serves the Prime Minister.
00:01:34.580 Diplomats do not create public policy.
00:01:36.540 So the whole question becomes, was he in fact doing the Prime Minister's bidding?
00:01:41.160 And we don't know because the Prime Minister has not denied it.
00:01:43.980 He hasn't confirmed it, but he hasn't denied it.
00:01:46.660 Or was he going rogue?
00:01:48.080 And if he was going rogue, why do you keep him on?
00:01:51.480 Why don't you fire him, given the message this has sent?
00:01:55.660 More likely, Trudeau likes that there are two messages sent out there.
00:01:59.920 One where they're saying, don't worry, United States, our largest trading partner.
00:02:03.420 We got your back.
00:02:04.420 We're doing the extradition.
00:02:05.420 And the other, to the Chinese language media, to the guys in Beijing, oh, don't worry.
00:02:10.120 This is just a minor thing.
00:02:11.420 It more involves the US than us.
00:02:12.960 We'll work it through.
00:02:14.120 And then, as John McCallum said in that press conference, this is just a minor obstacle
00:02:19.040 that we will get over and then we will work towards a closer relationship in the future.
00:02:24.340 Time out.
00:02:25.700 People don't want a closer relationship with China right now.
00:02:28.500 Yes, we've got to do some degree of trade.
00:02:30.500 Yes, we've got to do some diplomacy with them.
00:02:32.700 But this is a reset right now.
00:02:34.540 A lot of people are opening their eyes to how the Chinese government operates.
00:02:39.020 Does Justin Trudeau see it that way?
00:02:41.140 Is he also welcoming of a reset?
00:02:43.680 And if he's not welcoming of a reset, what does he want with our China policy?
00:02:48.680 And that is what Canadians need to be told.
00:02:50.680 Of course, did you need to be told?