Juno News - June 01, 2019


Justin Trudeau's continued silence on China


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

183.51064

Word Count

1,035

Sentence Count

66

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

In this episode, I discuss the latest developments in the Canada-China relations, including the recent visit by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to Canada, the release of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and Meng Wanzhou, and how Canada should respond.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Canada's spat with China has worsened in the past week alone and it's hard to say what the bigger
00:00:16.920 problem is. The raw facts of all of this? The fact that the Trudeau government really isn't doing
00:00:22.580 much in response to it or that people aren't even really necessarily aware of all this. The stories
00:00:27.960 aren't being amplified, they're not getting out there all that much, and therefore people aren't
00:00:32.020 being able to get outraged, frustrated about it, and demanding their government do something in
00:00:37.020 response. So the latest development. You probably know that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence came to
00:00:42.180 Canada and he met with Justin Trudeau. Now the news that the feds chose to leak about what they discuss
00:00:47.440 is they said that Trudeau was going to bring up the abortion issue to Mike Pence, which is total
00:00:52.400 nonsense. It's both virtue signaling and it's an attempt to take that issue and somehow use it to
00:00:57.420 harm Andrew Scheer to say, oh conservatives are going to do just that and right here in Canada
00:01:01.980 and only Justin Trudeau can save you and so forth. I mean it's nonsense because Mike Pence, whatever his
00:01:07.380 personal views may be, he's a federal politician and the abortion laws in the U.S. are changing on a
00:01:12.720 state level and Justin Trudeau is of course not an American politician, he's a Canadian one. So what
00:01:17.820 does it have to do with anything? And we also know that there have been some deals that have been
00:01:21.420 really damaged by the fact that Justin Trudeau has focused on his pet issues and not kept his eye on
00:01:27.000 the ball and really focused on the actual issue they were there to talk about. So that's a big
00:01:31.020 problem in and of itself. I will say though one thing that seemed to happen quite productively is
00:01:35.680 Pence and Trudeau together issued a statement calling on China to release our detainees, Michael
00:01:41.360 Kovrig and Michael Spavor. That's good news. Full points to both Spence and Trudeau for doing that.
00:01:46.960 Here's the problem though. China responded and I'm going to read to you what their foreign
00:01:52.280 ministry spokesperson said. This is from Gang Shuang who said the other day, we hope that the Canadian
00:01:59.820 side can have a clear understanding of the consequences of endangering itself for the gains
00:02:05.660 of the U.S. and take immediate actions to correct its mistakes so as to spare itself the suffering from
00:02:13.500 growing damage. Wow, that's a threat. He's saying if you keep being friends with the U.S. and if you
00:02:20.900 don't come around to China's side and release Meng Wang Zhu, the Huawei CFO who's currently being
00:02:26.260 lawfully detained in Canada, well then we're going to bring more damage upon you, more suffering.
00:02:32.100 He actually used that word. That is a threat coming directly from Beijing and it is unacceptable.
00:02:39.660 You can't let these things fester. You can't just let them say it. And you can say, oh, they're just,
00:02:44.500 you know, trying to get a rise out of us and trying to make us do this, that, and the other.
00:02:47.700 They're, no. They're threatening us, bullying us, and they have done things in the past showing that
00:02:53.680 they will probably do them again. We need to respond with reciprocal action and a lot of it has been
00:02:59.400 proposed by many people. That we should expel their ambassador, Lou Shea, who said Canadians' views were
00:03:05.340 rooted in white supremacy. I mean, where is this coming from? Or we should pull our funds from the Asian
00:03:10.240 Investment Infrastructure Bank, something Andrew Scheer said he'd do and other people were calling for.
00:03:14.840 Sadly, though, we're not hearing much of this argument get traction. I mean, a lot of experts, a lot of
00:03:20.980 academics, a lot of smart minds of their pundits, they're calling for these sorts of things to happen.
00:03:26.040 But these voices need to be amplified more. Instead, we're getting voices like this. A guest column that
00:03:32.220 appeared in the Globe and Mail by Chandra Nair. I've never heard of this gentleman before, a businessman and a
00:03:37.820 think tank operative based in Hong Kong. I want to read an excerpt from his guest column in the Globe and Mail.
00:03:43.040 He says, in Canada, a country that prides itself as welcoming, tolerant, and modern,
00:03:48.500 well, there has been a groundswell of anti-Chinese sentiments and even xenophobia. A diplomatic
00:03:55.500 solution may very well be worked out between the two countries, but some dangerous seeds have been
00:04:00.300 planted and a lot of hard work will need to be done on both sides to repair the relationship.
00:04:05.300 Important for Canada is how it should think about a future world power and a new world order in a
00:04:12.640 post-Western world. Excuse me? And go online and read, you know, this column. This is 100% total
00:04:20.040 garbage. I don't fault the paper for sometimes running a contrarian view. I fault this author
00:04:24.600 here. I mean, it seems like it's written directly by spokespeople out of Beijing, accusing us of
00:04:30.280 xenophobia for what? For having a problem that the communists in Beijing are turning the screws on us?
00:04:36.000 I haven't heard a single person in all this conversation say something negative about
00:04:39.860 Chinese Canadians in general based on, you know, their heritage or ethnicity. This is about Beijing
00:04:45.360 and the things they're doing that are unacceptable. And I will be unapologetic in condemning that regime.
00:04:52.280 And I'm not going to tolerate anybody calling us xenophobes for making those statements.
00:04:56.980 A post-Western world. I'm sorry, but I'm quite happy with saying Canada's the best country in the world.
00:05:03.160 Glad to have the United States as one of our allies. And I would rather the United States be the
00:05:07.760 dominant superpower for many decades and centuries to come than China. And we should support policies
00:05:13.820 that work towards that outcome. So this is the latest defense. You're not hearing too much from
00:05:20.360 Justin Trudeau on it. Threats of suffering from China. If the time has never been greater to hit back,
00:05:26.740 well, I mean, it is now.
00:05:33.160 Then this is the latest defense.
00:05:34.580 All right.
00:05:36.380 I mean, I don't think for any reason, let's say this.