Trade talks between Canada and the United States have hit a dead end. Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev blames Prime Minister Mark Carney for allowing trade talks to be derailed by a Ronald Reagan ad that the Prime Minister was aware of. An investigative journalist is raising alarm bells about foreign interference. Crime statistics show that crime in Canada s capital city has spiked by nearly two-thirds since the Liberals took office.
00:00:00.000Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev blames Prime Minister Mark Carney for allowing trade talks
00:00:08.960to be derailed by a Ronald Reagan ad that the Prime Minister was aware of.
00:00:13.880An investigative journalist is raising alarm bells about foreign interference,
00:00:17.860highlighting Carney's private sector ties to the Chinese government.
00:00:21.280Crime statistics show that crime in Canada's capital city has spiked by nearly two-thirds
00:00:26.680since the Liberals took office. Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, October 29th and this is the True
00:00:31.940North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux. I'm Alex Soltan. We've got you covered with all the news
00:00:37.360you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't
00:00:41.540hear anywhere else. Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev accused Prime Minister Mark Carney of
00:00:49.480allowing trade negotiations with the U.S. to spiral to a dead end. Speaking to reporters Tuesday,
00:00:55.140Paliyev said Carney failed to swiftly defuse the diplomatic spat triggered by Premier Doug Ford's
00:01:00.460U.S. television ads misquoting a radio address by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.
00:01:05.960The ads, which began airing last week, prompted a fiery response from U.S. President Donald Trump
00:01:10.860and an abrupt halt to trade talks between the two countries.
00:01:14.080Mark Carney approved the ad. And then he claimed, after the ad started running,
00:01:22.300that the ad was the reason why no deal happened. So it's time for Mark Carney to come clean.
00:01:30.560He claims he was on the verge, once again, claims that he was on the verge of getting a deal.
00:01:35.800Then he approved the ad. And then he blamed the ad for the fact that there is no deal.
00:01:41.400So the reality is that Premiers are stepping up to fill the void left behind by Mark Carney's
00:01:48.460broken promise. He said he would negotiate a win. He said he would have a deal by July 21st.
00:01:55.760Still no deal. Still no win. Still no elbows. Still no jobs.
00:02:00.440Paliyev suggested that Ford's ads, which highlighted the economic dangers of tariffs by splicing Reagan's
00:02:05.4001987 remarks, were not themselves the problem, but became one due to what he called Carney's
00:02:11.040quote, vacuum of leadership. Paliyev did not endorse or condemn Ford's ad campaign directly,
00:02:16.740but defended the premier's right to advocate for Ontario's workers and businesses.
00:02:21.460So Alex, what was the ad saying? And what was the point of contention for Trump?
00:02:25.720Well, Isaac, the ad really doesn't say much of its own on its own accord. What it does
00:02:33.420is it uses some audio clippings from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, where he speaks
00:02:38.900out against tariffs. As I understand it, Trump said that the ad is fake. The audio clipping
00:02:45.500is in fact genuine. And Ronald Reagan was consistently skeptical of tariffs. He often criticized them
00:02:52.280as being simply taxes. I would tend to agree with that opinion. He often said tariffs are
00:02:59.360just taxes and that there are direct costs on American consumers, not a punishment to foreign
00:03:03.640countries. Of course, like most leaders, he sometimes used tariffs, but generally speaking,
00:03:09.660he was against them. In his 1985 radio address, for instance, Ronald Reagan said tariffs don't
00:03:15.040protect the American worker. They penalize the American consumer. That is true. Tariffs,
00:03:20.000again, are a tax and they're regressive tax that impacts consumers and specifically American
00:03:25.340consumers. The tariffs are on Canadian goods purchased by Americans. So Canadians don't pay
00:03:31.060the brunt of the tariffs. Americans do. In another speech to Congress in 1986, he said,
00:03:36.420we should tear down barriers. Speaking about tariffs and trade barriers, not erect new ones.
00:03:41.220The freer flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace.
00:03:45.360And in his 1988 campaign, he said, free trade has been one of the keystones of prosperity
00:03:49.720in this century. And again, I think that most economists over the last century would agree
00:03:54.280with Ronald Reagan. So to answer your question, Isaac, in terms of what was Trump's contention
00:03:58.840with the ads, it's not exactly clear to me that would be a question that only Donald Trump could
00:04:03.900answer. And if the suggestion is that Ronald Reagan was pro tariffs, I would say that that
00:04:10.760is historically inaccurate. Investigative journalist Sam Cooper told members of parliament at the
00:04:19.140federal ethics committee that prime minister Mark Carney's former firm Brookfield cozied up to
00:04:24.320politically connected Chinese entities while he was vice chair. Testifying before the standing
00:04:28.540committee on access to information, privacy, and ethics, investigative journalist Sam Cooper said
00:04:33.620Brookfield expanded its real estate holdings in China by partnering with individuals tied to the
00:04:38.260Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department. This department is a key organ Beijing
00:04:42.920uses to exert overseas influence. 2015 Brookfield had made very substantial China-based real estate
00:04:50.020investments. And due to my knowledge of Beijing's United Front networks, I noted that one of the key
00:04:58.680Hong Kong investors connected to the projects in which Brookfield was investing was part of China's
00:05:07.160political consultative conference. That was important to me because the Central Intelligence Agency notes that
00:05:14.420people on that high level Chinese Communist entity are involved, the CIA says, in Beijing's sort of global
00:05:26.900united front networks. That's how the Chinese Communist Party brings influential people together. So I noted in my
00:05:33.520reporting that for Brookfield to get access to that same type of investment project on a major real
00:05:40.060estate deal in China, together with a very elite Hong Kong real estate tycoon, certainly in my learned
00:05:49.780opinion, would it would take a special kind of access to get that kind of deal. Cooper added that some of Brookfield's
00:05:56.320Chinese partnerships were supported by the state-owned Bank of China and involved real estate developments with direct
00:06:01.540political ties. While not accusing Carney personally of any wrongdoing, Cooper added that some of Brookfield's Chinese
00:06:07.040partnerships were supported by the state-owned Bank of China and involved real estate developments with direct political ties.
00:06:12.520While not accusing Carney personally of any wrongdoing, Cooper highlighted the firm's increasing involvement with entities close to the
00:06:18.840Chinese state under Mark Carney's leadership. Conservative MP Michael Barrett questioned Cooper on whether Carney's current role as
00:06:24.980Prime Minister warranted closer scrutiny, given these previous business ties. Cooper responded by referencing a, quote,
00:06:31.520controversial 2023 meeting between Carney and representatives of the Jiangsu Chamber of Commerce in Toronto, describing its link to Chinese influence networks.
00:06:41.840Cooper said, quote, there's controversy about what really happened in that meeting. There have been denials, but the optics are concerning, end quote.
00:06:48.600So, Isaac, what are some of the connections True North dug up during the election with Carney's Liberals and the Communist-run Chinese government during the most previous election cycle?
00:06:57.460Yeah, Alex. So, during the federal election, True North uncovered a pattern of concerning links between Mark Carney's Liberals and Beijing-aligned networks,
00:07:05.560raising questions about foreign interference and party vetting standards.
00:07:09.340For example, in late March, Liberal MP Paul Chang, then running for re-election in Markham Unionville,
00:07:15.420was accused of telling a Chinese-language media outlet that Conservative candidate Joe Tay, a Hong Kong dissident,
00:07:21.720could be delivered to the Chinese consulate to claim a $1 million bounty.
00:07:25.860The RCMP confirmed it was investigating the remarks, and Chang later stepped down,
00:07:29.760following intense backlash from national security experts and human rights advocates,
00:07:34.300who called the comments a chilling echo of CCP intimidation tactics.
00:07:38.080The controversy deepened when Mark Carney refused to remove Chang from the campaign until after the investigation become public,
00:07:44.740and when reports surfaced that Beijing-linked media outlets like Ming-Pao and Xing-Tao
00:07:48.580had promoted Chang and other Liberal figures during the campaign.
00:07:52.100Chang's replacement, former Toronto Police Deputy Chief Peter Yuen, quickly drew scrutiny as well.
00:07:57.920Yuen had been filmed singing My Chinese Heart, which is a patriotic communist anthem
00:08:02.660often used to promote Chinese nationalism while he was in uniform,
00:08:06.560and he was later found to have served on the board of the NOIC Academy,
00:08:10.560a private school flagged in Canada's foreign interference inquiry for suspected election meddling.
00:08:15.600The same inquiry found that students at NOIC were allegedly pressured by the Chinese consulate
00:08:20.320to vote for Liberal candidates under threats to their families in China.
00:08:23.720Yuen also maintained past roles with organizations tied to Beijing's United Front Work Department,
00:08:28.580including the Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada,
00:08:32.140whose members Carney himself reportedly met with during a 2023 gathering described by Chinese state media
00:08:37.460as an important turning point in China-Canada relations.
00:08:41.660Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev accused Carney of turning a blind eye to these connections,
00:08:45.580saying he was just in China a few months ago arranging a quarter-billion dollar loan for his company,
00:08:51.060a company in which he still has millions of dollars of interest.
00:08:54.140True North also reported that Chinese state-affiliated WeChat platforms were actively promoting Carney's leadership campaign
00:09:00.840to diaspora voters, a move that the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force
00:09:06.340flagged as a foreign influence operation.
00:09:09.040Despite this, Carney declined to condemn the interference, claiming he had no idea why Beijing would support him.
00:09:15.460And then polling released later by Nanos Research showed that Liberal voters were the most supportive
00:09:20.020of closer trade ties with China, with 40% backing stronger economic relations,
00:09:24.660more than double the rate among Conservatives.
00:09:27.040But taken together, these revelations painted a troubling picture of a governing party
00:09:31.640increasingly comfortable with Beijing-linked influence networks,
00:09:34.480even amid a national reckoning over foreign interference.
00:09:40.800The Ottawa Police Service reported a sharp rise in crime across the nation's capital
00:09:45.040during a board meeting on Monday, citing significant increases
00:09:48.120in violent and property-related offences since 2015.
00:09:51.840The meeting opened with a three-minute land acknowledgement recognising Ottawa's