Juno News - March 13, 2023


The China Scandal is a DISASTER for Trudeau


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

182.02344

Word count

1,693

Sentence count

91

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

What do you do if you are alleged to be involved in a foreign election interference scheme? First, you deny the allegations. And then you turn around and shout racism. Because that's what everyone does when they have nothing to hide.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is racist. I told them in the email already.
00:00:02.460 You say it's racist? Why is it racist?
00:00:03.480 It's racist because I was born in China, because I come from China.
00:00:13.540 What do you do if you're a sitting politician and you are alleged to be involved in a foreign election interference scheme?
00:00:18.880 Well, first, you deny the allegations.
00:00:20.940 And second, you turn around and shout racism!
00:00:23.640 Because that's what everyone does when they have nothing to hide.
00:00:26.540 Back in Ottawa, things continue to fall apart for the Trudeau Liberals.
00:00:30.200 After weeks of pressure, the Feds have finally caved and are starting the process of developing a foreign agent registry.
00:00:36.660 But who could have guessed?
00:00:37.740 The number one concern for the federal government is to make sure they're not seen as racist.
00:00:42.900 That's how you know they're really concerned about foreign election interference.
00:00:46.520 Drop a like in the video. Help us out by subscribing to the Trudeau Earth YouTube channel.
00:00:49.780 And the common question for the episode is this.
00:00:52.200 What should the punishment be for elected officials, MPs, or provincial parliamentarians who are found to be involved in a foreign election interference scheme?
00:01:00.820 Let me know and let's get into it.
00:01:02.520 Another Friday afternoon bombshell from Global News dropped last week, continuing to blow the China scandal or China Gate or whatever name we end up landing on for this scandal wide open.
00:01:12.660 The latest news alleges that progressive conservative MPP, also from Don Valley North, what a coincidence, Vincent Ke, allegedly played the role of financial intermediary in the CCP-backed plot to interfere in the 2019 election.
00:01:27.280 An election interference network directed by China's Toronto consulate, allegedly involved a sitting member of the Ontario legislature, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation into Beijing's covert efforts during the 2019 federal election.
00:01:41.680 Those sources assert that Vincent Ke, a progressive conservative member in Premier Doug Ford's government since 2018, served as a financial intermediary in Chinese Communist Party interference schemes,
00:01:52.360 described in two separate Privy Council Office intelligence reports reviewed by Global News.
00:01:58.080 Ke has denied the allegations.
00:01:59.700 One of the documents that refer to the funding schemes is a January 2022 Privy Council Office report which asserts that the CCP's Toronto Area Network included 11 or more 2019 federal candidates, 13 or more aides, and an Ontario MPP.
00:02:15.680 Now we know who that Ontario MPP is.
00:02:18.300 And when asked to explain the allegations on Friday, Vincent Ke took a page out of Justin Trudeau's playbook, and he did what every man does when they have absolutely nothing to hide.
00:02:28.880 He cried racism.
00:02:30.320 Force accusation. This is racist. I told him in the email already.
00:02:33.940 You say it's racist? Why is it racist?
00:02:34.980 It's racist because I was born in China, because I come from China.
00:02:38.080 And Doug Ford, who governed in lockstep with Justin Trudeau for the past three years, and who famously stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Trudeau as he invoked the Emergencies Act, is, in a stunning and out-of-character move, doing something different than Justin Trudeau.
00:02:51.820 Within hours of the Global News story alleging Vincent Ke's involvement in the CCP election interference schemes, Vincent Ke announced his resignation from PC Caucus.
00:03:01.320 In other words, Doug Ford booted him from Caucus.
00:03:04.240 Here was the Premier's statement.
00:03:05.440 While the allegations against Mr. Ke are not proven, they are serious and deserve his full and undivided attention as he works to clear his name.
00:03:13.220 As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, Mr. Ke offered to step away from Ontario PC Caucus to sit as an independent.
00:03:19.880 Now, there were some pretty good comments from the statement.
00:03:22.660 Won't be happy until we see some arrests and resignations from all involved.
00:03:26.880 You know, I think that's where a lot of people are at right now.
00:03:28.800 I think a lot of people are waiting for some real action here.
00:03:31.840 Let's get an actual investigation, a criminal investigation.
00:03:35.440 And how are we allowing these people, if they really were involved in this stuff, to sit in our legislatures?
00:03:41.220 Weird how nothing like this is happening at the federal level.
00:03:45.000 It is strange, isn't it?
00:03:46.460 It is strange that someone involved, someone alleged to be involved in this, is just sitting in Liberal Caucus, enjoying life as a Liberal MP.
00:03:55.900 Funny, a provincial Tory was working to get the federal Liberals elected.
00:03:59.780 Well, let's just say, they're not really playing for the team we think they're playing for, are they?
00:04:03.720 And as I mentioned at the top of the show, after weeks of pressure, the Feds have finally caved and are starting the process of opening a foreign agent registry.
00:04:13.080 Now, what's funny is, if you go all the way back to when this scandal first started to unravel,
00:04:17.260 a foreign agent registry was one of the reasons why the CCP allegedly backed the Liberals to win.
00:04:23.540 Because the Liberals were against a registry, and certain Conservative MPs, like BC's Kenny Chu, was a loud advocate for a foreign agent registry.
00:04:32.280 Now it appears that all of that tough work that the Communists allegedly put in to get the Liberals elected, it's all backfiring on them.
00:04:39.140 And this is how you know the Liberals are really taking this issue seriously.
00:04:42.540 They've run the numbers, as last week we discussed, over 91% of Canadians take this issue seriously.
00:04:48.020 So they knew that something had to be done.
00:04:49.300 This is how you know they're really taking it seriously.
00:04:50.920 Their number one concern with the foreign agent registry is to not be seen as racist.
00:04:56.400 Now if you don't believe me, take a look at this CBC article announcing the government's plans.
00:05:01.500 Liberals to begin public consultations on setting up a foreign influence registry.
00:05:06.540 The first line of the article.
00:05:08.080 International Trade Minister Mary Ng wants to ensure registry does not stoke anti-Asian racism.
00:05:14.340 The first line is not,
00:05:16.060 International Trade Minister Mary Ng wants to ensure that China stops meddling in our elections.
00:05:20.920 The first line is that she's worried it might stoke anti-Asian racism.
00:05:24.700 Public Safety Minister Marco Menaccino announced Friday that the Liberal government wants to hear from Canadians on creating a foreign influence transparency registry to help prevent other countries from meddling in Canada's affairs.
00:05:37.680 The Liberals have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks over allegations detailed in media reports citing unnamed security sources and highly classified documents that they did not act when warned that China was trying to interfere in the last two federal elections.
00:05:52.100 International Trade Minister Mary Ng, who is Chinese-Canadian, here we go, said it is important to create the registry in such a way that does not stoke anti-Asian racism.
00:06:02.560 We have a great responsibility to ensure that we are not unfairly or unintentionally creating a cloud that hovers over an entire community that is feeling incredibly uncertain,
00:06:11.700 and who have felt the discomfort of unconscious bias that became very conscious in the early days of the pandemic, said Ng.
00:06:19.020 Unbelievable.
00:06:20.260 Everyone who's serious about this issue knows it has nothing to do with racism.
00:06:24.340 That's why some of the loudest advocates for a registry happen to be Chinese-Canadians.
00:06:29.480 It's about stopping our enemies from interfering in our democracy.
00:06:33.340 It's about tracking spies who work for our enemies.
00:06:36.520 Now, if this foreign agent registry goes ahead and you happen to find yourself on that list, it's probably because you're a spy working against our interests and not because of the color of your skin.
00:06:47.420 And when asked on Saturday by CTV's Vashi Capellos about whether or not the Canadian government would remove any mention of China on the foreign registry to avoid being seen as racist,
00:06:58.720 Mary Ng didn't rule that out.
00:07:01.040 Watch this clip.
00:07:01.780 Certainly the last thing any of us should be trying to do is further, you know, further, you know, further any kind of hate going towards the Chinese community in this country.
00:07:13.120 And I appreciate you making those points.
00:07:15.200 But the focus is not over the past three weeks on alleged interference from other countries and where the registry is concerned.
00:07:21.720 Does that mean, for example, that your government is considering not specifically naming China in, you know, encompassing the types of foreign operatives who have to register?
00:07:32.880 And I ask you that question because I spoke to the prime minister, the former prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, who brought that law in 2018 to Australia.
00:07:41.200 They did not specifically name China at the time.
00:07:43.540 He said it was a colossal mistake and hasn't actually done anything as a result to root out Chinese foreign interference. 0.57
00:07:49.260 I think the point to this that we are pursuing in the registry is to make sure that there is greater transparency and that there is another tool to protect Canadians against foreign interference.
00:08:01.760 That's what this is.
00:08:02.880 We're really serious about stopping election interference.
00:08:05.600 But just to be safe, we might avoid mentioning the name of the enemy because we wouldn't want to be seen as racist.
00:08:10.940 The story doesn't stop there for Mary Ng, the international trade minister.
00:08:15.520 On Friday, Chuck Kwan, the chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy, testified in front of parliamentarians.
00:08:23.560 Besides calling for the establishment of a foreign agent registry, another Asian-Canadian calling for a foreign agent registry, so racist.
00:08:31.560 Kwan said that a lot of foreign interference takes place through the use of organizations set up by those who are close and friendly to the CCP.
00:08:39.540 Two of those organizations happen to be the National Congress of Chinese-Canadians and the successor to that organization, the Confederation of Toronto Chinese-Canadian Organizations.
00:08:50.780 According to Blacklock's reporter, Mary Ng has attended several events hosted by the Confederation of Toronto Chinese-Canadian Organizations.
00:08:59.100 And when asked to comment by Blacklock's, Mary Ng's office refused.
00:09:03.940 A reminder about the comment question, what should the punishment be for elected officials who are found to be involved in a foreign election interference scheme?
00:09:11.300 Let me know.
00:09:12.200 Alright, that's going to do it for us today on the show.
00:09:13.780 I will catch you on Thursday.
00:09:15.280 My name is Harrison Faulkner and this is Radio.
00:09:17.940 Thank you.