Juno News - March 02, 2023


LAWTON： This strikes me as odd


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

162.55374

Word Count

920

Sentence Count

48

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I did want to talk just a little bit in the remaining few minutes of the program about
00:00:04.480 what's happening in the China file today. This is the scandal that keeps on unfolding. I don't
00:00:10.820 want to say keeps on giving because, well, basically the Chinese Politburo is the gift
00:00:14.760 that keeps on giving to the liberals. This one was great that they wanted to build a statue to Mao
00:00:20.640 in Montreal. And that I think was even a little too on the nose for Justin Trudeau. He said,
00:00:25.140 okay, hang on. I'm okay with you guys mucking around in the elections, but don't make a look
00:00:30.680 at the statue of Mao in Montreal. I mean, Montreal wouldn't have liked that at all because it would
00:00:35.060 have violated probably Bill 21 or something. But anyway, so the thing that's fascinating here is
00:00:41.980 the national security advisor to Justin Trudeau, Jody Thomas, who has become a bit of a mainstay
00:00:47.380 in Canadian politics with her comments on the Freedom Convoy, her comments on all sorts of
00:00:52.060 other things lately. But Jody Thomas was testifying before Parliament, and she acknowledged that CSIS
00:00:57.580 gave the Trudeau government and gave Trudeau multiple briefings on election interference.
00:01:03.700 How many times was the Prime Minister briefed about Beijing's interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections?
00:01:13.420 The Prime Minister would have been briefed on foreign interference in the elections multiple times
00:01:18.060 between 2019 and 2021 and 2022. We will endeavour to get you those dates.
00:01:26.580 So you will undertake to provide the dates and the agencies and those involved in briefing the Prime Minister?
00:01:35.680 We will endeavour to get the dates for you.
00:01:37.700 Every instance that he was briefed in respect of Beijing's election interference?
00:01:42.280 I will do my best. But again, I was not in this job at the time.
00:01:45.700 Okay, so that's fairly specific. She's saying, I'm going to need to get the dates to you and we'll,
00:01:51.540 you know, send those over by fax, you know, at the earliest convenience, maybe, you know, 2037.
00:01:56.680 But yeah, multiple briefings, multiple briefings Justin Trudeau got on election interference.
00:02:01.460 Now, this struck me as a little odd at first, because I recall Justin Trudeau denying
00:02:05.560 he was given any such briefings. There was this comment in the House of Commons not that long ago.
00:02:11.820 The question is, has he been briefed since November 7th about whether or not a foreign power
00:02:18.360 funnelled money to Canadian federal candidates? Yes or no?
00:02:23.120 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.
00:02:26.160 Mr. Speaker, as I have said a number of times in this House, to this moment, I have not,
00:02:33.100 in all the briefings I've received, there has never been information around candidates receiving
00:02:41.040 money from China in the 2011 election, sorry, in the 2019 election or in the 2021 elections.
00:02:49.360 We have independent public servants who are engaged to oversee the integrity of the elections.
00:02:55.760 They confirm the election, the elections did complete themselves with full integrity.
00:03:03.020 Well, that's a little bit clever. Also a very specific answer. He said something very similar
00:03:08.480 at this press conference as well, which I believe was in November, if memory serves.
00:03:14.240 Our government has always taken very seriously the responsibility of protecting Canadians,
00:03:21.300 of working with our security agencies to do everything we can to keep Canadians and our institutions
00:03:27.080 safe against foreign interference. I have asked my officials to examine these media reports
00:03:35.080 and give all the possible answers, everything they can, to the parliamentary committee that's looking
00:03:44.800 into this. But let me be clear. I do not have any information, nor have I been briefed on any federal
00:03:55.020 candidates receiving any money from China. Again, an oddly specific answer. I have never been briefed on
00:04:05.600 candidates receiving money from China. He's not saying I've never been briefed on interference,
00:04:11.900 although in context of the questions, that was how people took his answers at the time. He said,
00:04:18.480 no, no, no, no one's ever briefing on that one specific thing. So it would strike me that there's
00:04:23.760 a little bit of wordplay there and that odd that CSIS and all of its many briefings, its multiple
00:04:28.400 briefings. I didn't mention that, yeah, there were some financial resources going towards candidates
00:04:33.000 here. I wonder if he was briefed on the donation to the Trudeau Foundation. So far, he has not answered
00:04:38.780 that. So I asked in the title of the show yesterday if this would be the end of Trudeau. And I cautioned
00:04:44.420 that we have had political career-ending scandals from this government, like the Aga Khan Island
00:04:50.580 vacation, like the SNC-Lavalin scandal, like the We Charity scandal, and all of them have proven to
00:04:57.640 have reduced Trudeau's exterior, not to the shine of blackface, but to a hard nonstick Teflon coating.
00:05:05.400 So I don't believe we should say at face value that this would be any different. In fact, the NDP
00:05:11.100 would probably love to have a tight relationship with China, although even they are coming out right
00:05:15.960 now and saying we need a public inquiry, maybe because they know a public inquiry is going to
00:05:19.880 take years. It's going to release an ambiguous report, and they will still be able to keep the
00:05:25.060 supply and confidence agreement. You're not allowed to call it a coalition government. The supply and
00:05:29.800 confidence agreement going until the next election would be anyway. So I wouldn't even hold out too
00:05:34.160 much optimism that even the NDP is ready to get serious with the Liberals on this.