The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - May 30, 2023


Beijingļ¼š Down the Rabbit Hole

Topics
public inquiry
Hosted by
Jamie Schmal
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau David Johnson Larry Brock Erin O'Toole Jody Wilson-Raybould Jamie Schmael Sheila Block Frank Iacobucci Michael Wernick Indian Cabinet Jane Philpott Jagmeet Singh Bill Morneau Gerald Buss Bob Soroya Jenny Kwan Han Dong Alexandra Ministers Selena
The Liberal Government ā€“ Whereā€™s Freelandļ¼Ÿ The Johnston Affair

Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

161.67

Word count

2,681

Sentence count

250

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode of The Blueprint, host Jamie Schmael is joined by Brantford MP Larry Brock to discuss the David Johnson report from the Special Rapporteur on Chinese interference in our election, and why it raises so many questions about the impartiality of the report.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
00:00:09.660 host, Jamie Schmael, member of Parliament for Halliburton Caworthalikes Brock with new content
00:00:13.560 every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We ask that you like, comment, share and subscribe
00:00:18.660 to this program. This is important information. Eyes and ears need to see and hear this. It's
00:00:24.340 important. And also tell your friends they can download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,
00:00:28.420 Google Play, and Spotify if they can't watch the show in its entirety right this very second,
00:00:33.760 as we always do for you. We have a great show lined up for you. And I brought back probably
00:00:38.680 the person I think that has the most frequent flyer miles on this program, Larry Brock, member
00:00:44.880 of Parliament for Brantford Brant. Thank you so much for coming back on. So happy to be back.
00:00:49.480 And this feels like home. Absolutely. This is home for you, Larry. As always. And of course,
00:00:53.820 we're so far aligned that we even wore purple together. We did. Without even calling each
00:00:58.840 other this morning. Without even calling each other. I know. We're just thinking alike.
00:01:02.380 Telepathically, we're on that same wave, right? Yeah. That's why I think I keep having you on
00:01:05.500 the show. I think so. So we are going to talk about something that kind of blew up during the
00:01:10.340 constituency week before or after, I should say, the program last week was that David Johnson,
00:01:16.780 the special rapporteur, says that there is nothing to see here in terms of interference
00:01:22.080 in our elections from Beijing or otherwise. But just trust them because we can't see the document.
00:01:27.420 We'll get into the other stuff about who we consulted. And that's a mess of its own.
00:01:32.580 Is there anything to see here, Larry? David Johnson says no.
00:01:35.620 There is so much to see here. There are so many hanging threads, the proverbial
00:01:41.540 hanging threads to this particular report. I don't know if you had a chance to review it cover to cover.
00:01:46.780 I have some takeaways that I think are important for our viewers to take note of.
00:01:54.360 Notwithstanding everything that we heard from the government, that media reports were largely
00:02:00.580 false as it relates to all the leaks shared by that one brave or many brave reporters, not reporters,
00:02:09.500 sorry, but employees of our spy agencies who revealed details to our reporters. And notwithstanding
00:02:16.620 that particular narrative, David Johnson confirmed that it was actually truthful, with one exception,
00:02:23.900 and that's in relation to Han Dong and his interference with respect to the two Michaels.
00:02:30.700 But he was permitted to pierce the confidentiality bubble and confirm that that was false, but could not elaborate on
00:02:43.980 anything else because of confidentiality. You can't have it one way and not the other, in my view.
00:02:49.980 And it's really a pattern that I've often seen in committees with respect to what they're prepared to share and
00:02:56.940 what they want to hold back. So again, another miscue by this government, choosing, in my view, someone who established himself a very credible, respected, learned, not only journalist, but former professor,
00:03:17.980 law dean, of course, our governor general, someone who's actually been part of previous commissions, again, with no apparent conflict of interest, but why he chose to accept this is really unfathomable.
00:03:37.980 I just, I don't understand, given all of the attention, all of the concerns that CESA's had, with respect to the Trudeau Foundation,
00:03:47.980 receiving that $140,000 that was specifically earmarked to go to the Foundation, the only contract that was signed by Justin Trudeau's brother, Alexandra, in the 20 years that he's been associated with the Foundation,
00:04:05.980 he had to have his own personal stamp on it. If that's not enough to raise the red flag, I don't know. But David Johnson was part of the Foundation.
00:04:14.980 I know.
00:04:15.980 He was there during the negotiation of that contract. He was there when the Foundation received the monies.
00:04:23.980 He was there when it was discovered that they ought not to have received the money.
00:04:28.980 Yep.
00:04:29.980 So if that, on the face of it, given his prestigious background, if that was not an obvious conflict of interest, I don't know.
00:04:38.980 Right? What about all the video that's surfacing of David Johnson and Trudeau going on about how close friends they are and family friends?
00:04:44.980 Like, there's the other piece to it.
00:04:46.980 Yes.
00:04:47.980 We have a family friend, we have a cottage neighbor, we have a ski buddy, we have clearly a close relationship.
00:04:57.980 How many other Canadians do you know that had such a close relationship with not one, but two prime ministers of this country?
00:05:07.980 Exactly.
00:05:08.980 Right? So that in and of itself is a conflict of interest. But what he did was appropriate. He wanted to get a second opinion.
00:05:17.980 He did. He got a second opinion.
00:05:18.980 Oh, did he get a second opinion?
00:05:19.980 Because there's nobody else in Canada to turn to for a second opinion.
00:05:21.980 Absolutely not.
00:05:22.980 Nobody else. So tell us who he went to.
00:05:24.980 So let's turn to the learned, retired jurist, Frank Iacobucci. As a lawyer, you know I probably read dozens and dozens of books.
00:05:36.980 And dozens of his decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada. The highest court in this country.
00:05:43.980 The problem however, well he freely wanted to give a legal opinion and that legal opinion was, by his review, notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary,
00:05:54.980 there was no conflict of interest. No legal conflict of interest. We have to be careful with the terminology.
00:06:01.980 The problem is, that retired justice is sitting on the Trudeau Foundation.
00:06:05.980 Look at that. Just had to look across the boardroom table.
00:06:07.980 How convenient. In a country of 40 million people, of learned, distinguished scholars and jurists, Justin Trudeau and David Johnson can only find those two.
00:06:21.980 Remarkable.
00:06:22.980 But wait, it gets worse. I feel like I'm selling ShamWow or something.
00:06:25.980 But wait, there's more. Who else did he turn to for advice?
00:06:28.980 He turned to his trusted legal advisor, Sheila Block. 0.90
00:06:33.980 Now, I can say with complete honesty, surprisingly, Sheila Block is not a member of the Foundation, but she's certainly a donor to the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:06:45.980 In fact, we have gone through her history of political donations and she's contributed to no other federal party other than the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:06:56.980 Again, it's too close.
00:06:59.980 It's amazing. On something this important, you would want to put as much distance.
00:07:03.980 Arm's length.
00:07:04.980 Right. Like, you want it to be as clean as possible so the Canadians can have trust in this whole situation that's evolving around us.
00:07:12.980 But yet, they just went to one board member, another Trudeau Foundation board member.
00:07:16.980 They went to a Liberal donor. Like you said, is there nobody else that they could get advice from?
00:07:21.980 Obviously, but look at the train wreck that this currently is.
00:07:26.980 As I indicated, David Johnson has distinguished himself and now his closeness to the Trudeau brand and this Trudeau government has tainted him to the contrary.
00:07:40.980 Take a look at all the people close to Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, that have been burned by their relationship with him.
00:07:47.980 Let's talk about the random liberals that he likes to refer to, those former members of his party.
00:07:54.980 Let's take a look at Jody Wilson-Raybould.
00:07:56.980 Our former Attorney General, our Minister of Justice, got too close to Justin.
00:08:02.980 And in fact, I don't know if you read her book, Indian Cabinet, she made a quote that I think is quite telling.
00:08:09.980 She wishes she had never met Justin Trudeau. Quite telling.
00:08:16.980 We have former Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, who supported, who had the audacity to support a colleague, Jody Wilson-Raybould.
00:08:25.980 She was taken out. She was asked to leave.
00:08:28.980 Then, of course, the last random liberal, our Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, who completely wanted to take this country in a different direction during the pandemic because he had a concern regarding fiscal responsibility.
00:08:44.980 And we all know how that turned out.
00:08:46.980 So, not just Captain Ministers, we got the former Privy Counsel, Michael Warnock, who went down because of his close relationship in terms of protecting Justin Trudeau.
00:08:56.980 And, of course, his lifetime, long-time friend, university buddy, Principal Secretary, Gerald Buss.
00:09:03.980 Yes, him too.
00:09:04.980 We all know.
00:09:05.980 So, anyone...
00:09:06.980 You don't want to be a friend of Justin Trudeau.
00:09:08.980 No, while Selena... 1.00
00:09:09.980 If you want to preserve...
00:09:10.980 Cesar Chavannes from Whitby.
00:09:12.980 Right.
00:09:13.980 So, you know, don't become a friend of this Trudeau...
00:09:16.980 Or be prepared to burn if he needs.
00:09:18.980 ...of this Trudeau government, or be prepared to suffer the consequences.
00:09:20.980 Yeah, absolutely.
00:09:21.980 It just...
00:09:22.980 It's unfortunate all this happened, but, again, there's more.
00:09:26.980 David Johnston goes to sit down with former leader Aaron O'Toole.
00:09:30.980 They sit down, the meeting goes, I think, fairly well from what Aaron's perspective was,
00:09:35.980 and halfway through it turns out that the report's already done.
00:09:38.980 Let's think about that for a moment.
00:09:39.980 Right?
00:09:40.980 He received intelligence and confirmed everything that we have been saying in the House,
00:09:47.980 that there was significant foreign interference from Beijing with respect to our 2019 and 2021 campaign.
00:09:56.980 Our 2021 campaign led by our former leader, Aaron O'Toole.
00:10:01.980 David Johnston knew about this going into his review of the massive amount of confidential information.
00:10:09.980 Exactly.
00:10:10.980 Why on earth would he think it would be entirely appropriate as an afterthought
00:10:16.980 to then meet with the former leader who was complaining during the campaign of the foreign influence?
00:10:23.980 Take a look at our former colleagues in BC.
00:10:26.980 Yep.
00:10:27.980 Take a look at our former colleague in Ontario, Bob Soroya,
00:10:30.980 who was contacted weeks before the election and warned by a Beijing operative to look for a new career.
00:10:38.980 Yep.
00:10:39.980 And why on earth would that not be part of his review prior to preparing the report?
00:10:44.980 If you know about it, you have to act on it.
00:10:45.980 Precisely.
00:10:46.980 He didn't want to report on it.
00:10:49.980 Just like he did not want to report on the Trudeau Foundation.
00:10:53.980 As I indicated at the outset, so many hanging threads.
00:10:57.980 We need, as CSIS has said, we need to get to the bottom of this.
00:11:02.980 We need a fresh set of independent eyes to get to the bottom of this.
00:11:08.980 Either Justin Trudeau does this, or we have this NDP motion that's being argued today.
00:11:15.980 Will the NDP finally take a stand and actually represent their constituents and stand for this country
00:11:23.980 and stand for our democracy or continue to shield the truth from Canadians?
00:11:28.980 Well, that's the other thing.
00:11:29.980 Now the NDP.
00:11:30.980 Now the NDP grows a spine.
00:11:32.980 But only because one of their members, turns out they've been informed, Jenny Kwan from Vancouver,
00:11:37.980 that they're also being targeted by Beijing.
00:11:39.980 That's right.
00:11:40.980 So now this wakes up the NDP.
00:11:42.980 Precisely.
00:11:43.980 Forget the election interference.
00:11:44.980 Don't worry about that.
00:11:45.980 Forget potential issues with donations. 1.00
00:11:47.980 They're hypocrites. 0.99
00:11:48.980 Don't worry about that. 1.00
00:11:49.980 Absolutely hypocrites, day in and day out. 0.99
00:11:53.980 I call them the Twitter warriors. 0.99
00:11:56.980 They fight the good fight on social media.
00:11:59.980 You're in the house every day like I am, Jamie.
00:12:02.980 We hear them constantly criticizing the government for not doing this right, for not doing that right.
00:12:08.980 But yet when it comes to an actual vote that has the potential of a vote of confidence and taking down this most corrupt government that this country has ever seen,
00:12:20.980 they turn a blind eye to it.
00:12:21.980 They can't have it both ways.
00:12:24.980 Or vote against conservatives that are trying to be in committee where nobody's watching and nobody's paying attention.
00:12:29.980 Yes.
00:12:30.980 I hope that they telegraph this and have a meeting.
00:12:34.980 I'm hoping that Jagmeet Singh has a meeting with Justin Trudeau to make it abundantly clear that this is either a unanimous or a majority vote in favor of a full independent public inquiry.
00:12:48.980 And he makes that a condition of the coalition or the coalition false.
00:12:53.980 Go to an election after that.
00:12:54.980 Take us to an election.
00:12:55.980 As our leader has indicated, and I refer to our leader today during my intervention as Canada's next great prime minister,
00:13:03.980 he made it abundantly clear in his intervention this morning that either Justin Trudeau calls the fully independent public inquiry or his first job will beat.
00:13:12.980 Exactly.
00:13:13.980 Let Canadians have a say on this.
00:13:14.980 Exactly.
00:13:15.980 At this point, does Justin Trudeau, does the Liberal Party actually have confidence in the House?
00:13:19.980 I would say hopefully not if the Liberals vote this down.
00:13:23.980 The other thing is, even if the majority in the House, the Conservatives, Bloc, and NDP, potentially Greens, vote in favor of public inquiry,
00:13:31.980 the government can then, Justin Trudeau can then drag their feet on it because I believe there's no timeline on that public inquiry that the NDP are calling for.
00:13:38.980 You're absolutely correct.
00:13:39.980 So again, it goes to your point that it's all show.
00:13:42.980 Yeah.
00:13:43.980 We've got 19 days, 19 days between now, today, and the end of our session before we embark on our summer break.
00:13:54.980 Even if, hypothetically, he convinces Justin Trudeau to call that inquiry, to your point, it could be well past the election before it's called.
00:14:03.980 Oh, absolutely.
00:14:04.980 All right?
00:14:05.980 Canadians need to be aware of this.
00:14:06.980 And Trudeau doesn't want to call it for a whole bunch of reasons, speculation.
00:14:09.980 I think you and I can have a field day with that.
00:14:12.980 But the evidence is pointing to the fact that it benefited.
00:14:16.980 This interference, this alleged interference, benefited the Liberal Party with up to nine seats.
00:14:21.980 We had, we had Beijing operatives in Vancouver who were boasting in 2021 that they were so gleeful and happy that they helped defeat the two conservative candidates, thus preserving a Liberal government.
00:14:36.980 A Liberal minority government is what Beijing wanted.
00:14:39.980 Yeah, they wanted that.
00:14:40.980 Because they love seeing, they keep in check, they love seeing the infighting, right?
00:14:44.980 But that's their preferred government.
00:14:46.980 Justin Trudeau knew about that.
00:14:48.980 His government knew about that.
00:14:50.980 His public servants knew about that.
00:14:52.980 And deliberately hid this from this country. 0.94
00:14:54.980 It's disgusting.
00:14:55.980 Not only that, the Public Safety Minister said that the Chinese police stations, the Beijing-led police stations, Communist Party of China police stations, were closed.
00:15:03.980 Turns out, oops, they're actually still operating.
00:15:05.980 How many more lies is Justin Trudeau willing to accept from that Public Safety Minister?
00:15:11.980 I've lost track how many times that he has deliberately looked people in the eyes, in the house,
00:15:17.980 at committee, said one thing when the opposite was the truth. 1.00
00:15:22.980 It's completely disgusting and incompetent. 0.98
00:15:25.980 I, again, go back to that same point. 0.99
00:15:27.980 I think we need an election.
00:15:28.980 I think it's been long past time for an election.
00:15:31.980 Yeah.
00:15:32.980 We've been trying many times.
00:15:33.980 How many confidence votes have we had in the house?
00:15:35.980 I can't remember.
00:15:36.980 Quite a few.
00:15:37.980 Quite a few.
00:15:38.980 The NDP just scuttle it. 0.59
00:15:39.980 I'm hoping, like you said, the NDP change their mind, grow a spine.
00:15:44.980 Yes.
00:15:45.980 Let's send Justin Trudeau and all Canadians to the polls.
00:15:48.980 Let's have Canadians giving their feedback on this situation.
00:15:51.980 Canada first.
00:15:52.980 Yes.
00:15:53.980 Not Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party.
00:15:54.980 All right.
00:15:55.980 Final words.
00:15:56.980 That is my final word.
00:15:57.980 Canada first.
00:15:58.980 Not Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party.
00:16:00.980 All right.
00:16:01.980 Larry Brock, all right, closes it out once again.
00:16:03.980 Member of Parliament for Brantford Brant.
00:16:05.980 We appreciate his time.
00:16:06.980 It's always great to have him back on the show.
00:16:07.980 It's always great when we dress alike.
00:16:09.980 That's kind of fun, too.
00:16:10.980 And we appreciate your time because we have new content for you every single Tuesday.
00:16:14.980 It comes on 1.30 p.m. Eastern time.
00:16:16.980 We ask that you like, comment, share, and subscribe to this program.
00:16:19.980 Please also tell your friends you can download it and listen to it on a platform like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify.
00:16:26.980 We will be back again next Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time.
00:16:29.980 Until then, remember it's low taxes, less government, more freedom.
00:16:33.980 That's the blueprint.