Juno News - April 02, 2025


Liberal MP who made China bounty comments steps down


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

151.10097

Word count

1,743

Sentence count

91


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Candidate Paul Chang resigns after allegations surfaced that he urged handing Conservative candidate Jay Tai to China for a bounty. A taxpayer advocacy group is warning that Mark Carney s plan to make the government a housing developer will only make the market riskier and more expensive. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro opposes U.S. tariffs on Canada, backing Premier Daniel Smith's fight for Alberta s economy.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Liberal candidate Paul Chang resigned after allegations surfaced that he urged
00:00:09.840 handing Conservative candidate Jay Tai to China for a bounty.
00:00:14.840 A taxpayer advocacy group is warning that Mark Carney's plan to make the government
00:00:18.720 a housing developer will only make the market riskier and more expensive.
00:00:23.320 Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro opposed U.S. tariffs on Canada,
00:00:28.060 backing Premier Daniel Smith's fight for Alberta's economy.
00:00:32.820 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, April 2nd and this is the True North Daily Brief.
00:00:37.420 I'm Cosmin Georgia.
00:00:38.980 And I'm Alex Sultan.
00:00:40.420 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:43.400 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:52.100 Liberal candidate Paul Chang has announced he is stepping aside following allegations
00:00:56.860 that he called for Conservative candidate Jay Tai to be handed over to Communist China in exchange for a bounty.
00:01:04.520 The announcement comes hours after the RCMP told the state broadcaster CBC News that they are currently
00:01:11.060 investigating whether his remarks violated Canadian law.
00:01:15.060 Meanwhile, Liberal leader Mark Carney refused to fire him after being confronted on the issue by the media.
00:01:20.900 Chang announced this morning that he is stepping aside as the Liberal candidate in Markham, Unionville.
00:01:27.720 In a statement, he said,
00:01:29.560 quote,
00:01:30.140 With so much at stake for Canadians, I do not want there to be distractions in this critical moment.
00:01:36.540 That's why I'm standing aside as our 2025 candidate in our community of Markham, Unionville.
00:01:42.540 The explosive report by the Toronto Association for Democracy in China alleges that Chang,
00:01:49.260 who was running for re-election in his writing, was quoted in a Chinese-language media outlet,
00:01:54.980 allegedly suggesting that somebody, quote,
00:01:57.720 can claim the $1 million bounty if they brought Tai to Toronto's Chinese consulate.
00:02:04.360 National security experts, opposition figures, and Chinese dissidents have condemned the alleged comments.
00:02:11.120 Chang allegedly made the comments to the CCP-funded Hong Kong-based outlet Ming Pao.
00:02:17.840 Tai, the conservative candidate running in Don Valley West, has been a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party,
00:02:24.680 and reports have indicated the Chinese authorities have placed a bounty on him.
00:02:29.440 So, Alex, I can't imagine that Mark Carney wants this story to continue to be propagated in the media,
00:02:37.340 but this does seem to be the huge news of this week.
00:02:42.140 And his response, his initial response to Paul Chang was to essentially stand by him,
00:02:49.100 calling it a misstep, an error,
00:02:53.340 instead of an indication of a deeper way that he views the world.
00:02:59.640 And, to me, it indicates disregard for Canada's customs, for our laws,
00:03:07.480 to suggest that somehow we are this Wild West state where you can just hand people over for bounties,
00:03:14.380 put on their heads by other countries.
00:03:17.100 So, with that in mind, Alex, how have other federal leaders reacted to this story?
00:03:23.340 Well, all of the other federal leaders, the major ones, I should say, which would be the major parties, of course,
00:03:28.940 the NDP, the conservatives, and the bloc have all called it out as an abomination and is completely unacceptable.
00:03:35.860 I think the most interesting commentary I have heard, though, was from people that are within the diaspora
00:03:43.040 who deal with the same type of threats that John Tay deals with.
00:03:46.480 I spoke to one yesterday. He was a pro-democracy advocate on behalf of Hong Kongers in Vancouver.
00:03:54.540 And I had reached out to ask if there were going to be any protests occurring in the near future in Vancouver related to this incident.
00:04:01.640 And he said that there have been fewer and fewer protests in Vancouver over the years
00:04:06.020 because people are becoming more and more fearful, not just of government intrusion from communist China,
00:04:12.160 but also from the lack of protection they received from their government and from the police.
00:04:17.620 And this is a quote I received from him yesterday.
00:04:19.620 He says, what happened with Paul Chang, it's definitely undoing a lot of the government's efforts to deal with foreign interference.
00:04:27.320 We already have a lot of mistrust and seeing fewer people show up to protest is a reflection of that mistrust.
00:04:33.660 And so I think that that's a more relevant commentary maybe than anything from the party leaders.
00:04:42.160 A taxpayer group is raising the alarm about Liberal leader Mark Carney's housing plan.
00:04:46.420 Carney held a press conference in Vaughan, Ontario, where he promised to double the pace of housing construction
00:04:50.840 to 500,000 new homes per year by creating a government entity to act as a developer for affordable homes
00:04:57.360 and to provide financing for prefabricated modular homes.
00:05:01.000 Carney promised to work with provinces and municipalities to cut development charges in half by 2030 for multi-housing units,
00:05:08.840 committing to providing municipalities funds for lost revenue.
00:05:12.160 He also promised to keep and reinforce the Trudeau government's Housing Accelerator Fund,
00:05:16.700 a very controversial policy widely panned for its inefficacy.
00:05:20.360 Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Franco Teresano, urged the government to get out of the way of builders.
00:05:27.220 I really like this quote.
00:05:28.420 He said, if more government was the solution to the housing crisis, then every Canadian would have two homes by now.
00:05:34.960 Teresano added that the federal government already has a corporation dedicated to housing,
00:05:39.300 the CMHC, or the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
00:05:42.540 He criticizes the Crown Corporation for failing to achieve its goal of housing affordability for all,
00:05:47.920 while also dishing out $132 million in bonuses to CMHC staff since 2020.
00:05:53.720 Carney has already committed to eliminating the goods and services tax on first-time homebuyers on homes under $1 million,
00:05:59.020 a policy remarkably similar to Conservative leader Pierre Polyev's commitment to axe the federal sales tax on newly built homes,
00:06:06.800 which he unveiled nearly six months ago.
00:06:09.020 Polyev has since upped the commitment to axe the GST on newly built homes up to $1.3 million.
00:06:14.980 So, Cosman, where does Canada stand with regard to housing availability today?
00:06:18.820 And are we building enough homes for people?
00:06:22.280 And what can the government do or not do to solve this problem?
00:06:25.440 I think what's often overlooked with housing is that nobody and no federal leader yet has really touched on
00:06:33.460 and hammered home how much mass immigration has contributed to this problem.
00:06:39.760 There was a recent study that came out by the Aristotle Foundation,
00:06:44.300 and they found that the rate of housing completions,
00:06:49.600 when you compare it to the amount of people we're bringing in every single year,
00:06:53.420 and I would like to remind people that when you're a new immigrant,
00:06:57.760 you need a house over your head.
00:06:59.980 You will be on the market for the rental market, most likely.
00:07:05.220 Most immigrants who arrive to Canada are not buying homes right away,
00:07:10.920 while that might be a longer-term goal,
00:07:14.360 and it might have actually been like a realistic goal back in the day.
00:07:18.360 Currently, that's not the case.
00:07:19.960 They're essentially entering the rental market in major metropolitan areas.
00:07:25.280 But when it comes to actually the construction of homes in Canada,
00:07:30.120 and I'm quoting these figures from the Aristotle Foundation,
00:07:33.880 So in 2021, there were three people per house built.
00:07:40.140 By 2023, there were five people arriving per house built.
00:07:45.660 So we're talking about essentially families arriving every single day, every single year,
00:07:52.500 and we're not fulfilling the needs of new arrivals,
00:07:57.560 but also the people who already live in Canada who are seeking houses for themselves.
00:08:02.900 I would agree completely with what you had to say,
00:08:05.400 and also with what Terra Zeno at the Canadian Taxpayer Federation had to say as well.
00:08:11.460 I worked in banking for many years before I started in reporting,
00:08:16.740 and I saw more and more government regulation over the time that I worked as a lender,
00:08:22.080 and a mortgage lender in particular,
00:08:24.000 and I only saw housing prices go up more.
00:08:26.080 So I believe that less government intervention is probably better than more at this point.
00:08:31.880 U.S. Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro has voiced his opposition to tariffs on Canadian goods
00:08:42.100 after meeting Alberta Premier Daniel Smith.
00:08:45.560 Shapiro's support for Canada drew praise from Smith as she continues her efforts to protect Alberta's economy
00:08:52.020 in the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade war.
00:08:54.980 Despite not agreeing on everything, she said common ground was found.
00:09:00.360 The tariff war is bad for the United States and Canada.
00:09:04.220 Shapiro is the founder of The Daily Wire,
00:09:06.800 which the premier has cited as having a reach of 220 million monthly followers.
00:09:12.720 He has 25 million followers on his own social media platforms.
00:09:16.960 Journalist David Staples said this is the second largest audience of anyone in Trump's base.
00:09:23.240 Americans are giving U.S. President Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, said Shapiro,
00:09:29.760 as he's following through on many of his campaign promises.
00:09:33.420 However, Shapiro noted that if the economy faltered, so too would the rest of his agenda.
00:09:40.180 Despite Americans disliking the tariffs, Shapiro said the rest of Trump's agenda is highly popular.
00:09:46.420 Before Smith met with Shapiro in Florida to discuss the tariffs,
00:09:50.840 he had previously been outspoken against imposing tariffs on Canada,
00:09:55.420 an ally instead of China, a geopolitical enemy.
00:09:59.760 Alberta NDP leader Nahi Nenshi complained about Smith meeting with Shapiro,
00:10:04.560 labeling him as a, quote,
00:10:06.160 extremists.
00:10:07.800 These tariffs have already been in place for quite some time now,
00:10:11.340 and there's a way.
00:10:13.540 Alex, how are the tariffs actually affecting both Canada's and the United States economies?
00:10:20.440 Well, tariffs always affect economies.
00:10:22.660 Tariffs have been around for a very long time.
00:10:25.300 They're nothing new.
00:10:26.580 And generally, tariffs are not good for people, people being consumers.
00:10:32.060 Tariffs are taxes, and they're actually punitive taxes designed to change behavior.
00:10:38.940 So that behavior might be, for instance, to favor domestic manufacturing
00:10:43.100 over importing a good from another country.
00:10:46.020 And in that sense, they're very economically and principally analogous to the carbon tax.
00:10:51.760 The carbon tax was a tax put on consumers to change behavior.
00:10:55.340 Tariffs are very much the same.
00:10:57.880 And so I think that Pierre Polyev opposing tariffs is logically consistent.
00:11:04.360 And I'm impressed that he took that and charted that course,
00:11:07.240 even though it was very unpopular with many conservatives
00:11:09.520 who agreed with the spirit of why Trump instituted the tariffs in the first place.
00:11:17.780 That's it for today, folks.
00:11:19.360 Thanks for tuning in.
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