Juno News - The stark difference between Trudeau's and Trump's response to the WHO

00:00:00.000 The differences between Canada's response about the World Health Organization and that of the

00:00:11.120 United States couldn't be more stark. There is no question the WHO failed in its initial handling

00:00:19.140 of the coronavirus and in saying that I mean it failed the world by spending the bulk of January

00:00:26.480 claiming there was no human-to-human contact of virus contagion. They kept it up throughout the

00:00:33.040 month in the face of this becoming a global pandemic. The end of January the U.S. president

00:00:39.400 shut down all incoming flights from China. In fact they repeated over and over China's claims

00:00:46.820 and they kept that up for weeks. It wasn't until January 30th the WHO declared a public health

00:00:53.840 emergency. It wasn't until March 11th that the WHO finally declared a global pandemic after it had

00:01:03.260 killed more than 4,000 people and infected more than 100,000. On May 18th President Trump sent a letter

00:01:12.120 to Dr. Tedros who heads the WHO essentially telling him the organization had 30 days to commit to major

00:01:20.260 substantive improvement or he would freeze all funding from the U.S. to the WHO. That's a substantial

00:01:28.440 amount of money estimated at 450 million dollars annually. China in contrast contributes less than 10% of that

00:01:38.280 amount. Yet the WHO has essentially been carrying China's water throughout this pandemic. In Canada

00:01:47.020 on the other hand Justin Trudeau waited for a further five days after the WHO declared the pandemic to

00:01:54.760 take any action. In point of fact Canada's public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam kept assuring Canadians

00:02:02.500 there was nothing to fear. She was essentially just repeating WHO talking points.

00:02:08.400 On Monday testifying before the standing committee on health in parliament she admitted that Canada could

00:02:18.900 have moved more quickly. Could have? She was appointed to the position as Canada's chief health officer

00:02:26.420 on June 26 2017. Yet she is still profile on the website of the WHO as part of the independent oversight and

00:02:36.000 advisory committee. No wonder she was just parroting what the WHO was spouting.

00:02:43.200 Earlier this week on the same day as President Trump fired off his letter to the WHO, Canada's

00:02:49.760 International Development Minister Karina Gould appeared on CBC's Power in Politics. She was asked if the WHO

00:02:57.920 should be more skeptical of China. Gould replied, quote, I'm not sure that that's the place for the WHO

00:03:04.400 because the WHO is a product of its member states and I think that each member state can push for openness

00:03:11.760 and transparency, unquote. She also said she believes the WHO has provided the most accurate and up-to-date

00:03:21.120 information it had access to. Really. Donald Trump has taken the world lead to try and hold the WHO

00:03:31.280 accountable and the position of Canada's government seems, well, they did the best they could.

00:03:40.400 Well, they did anything but. They have proven they are just another ineffectual branch of the United

00:03:46.720 nations. And in doing China's bidding, they have failed the world. For True North, I'm Leo Knight.

Juno News - May 21, 2020