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


Transcript

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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