Beijing’s Interference in Canada
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Summary
On this episode of The Blueprints, Conservative MP Michael Cooper joins us to talk about the Trudeau government's $40B deficit, the foreign interference scandal, and much, much more. Guest: MP for St. Albert, Alberta, Michael Cooper
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
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your host, Jamie Schmael, member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps, the likes Brock, with
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new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. Don't forget to like,
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comment, subscribe and share this program. There are ears that need to hear this message,
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eyes that need to see it as well. Of course, you can download on platforms like CastBox,
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iTunes, Google Play and Spotify, you name it. It is out there on today's show. Budget was tabled
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last week and what a disaster that was. Also, some pretty serious developments in the foreign
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interference file to talk about this and much, much more. We are bringing on Michael Cooper,
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the member of Parliament for St. Albert Edmonton. Thank you very much for coming on the show once
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again. Good to be here, Jamie. We'll do a quick dive in about the budget quickly and then we'll
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go even deeper next week. But I just wanted to kind of get this on the table before we get into
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probably the most serious part of what is going on underneath the surface, but the media seems to
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be taking a yawn, is the foreign interference. But the budget itself, we have higher spending,
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we have higher deficits, and there'll be more misery for Canadians very shortly.
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Well, that's right. A $40 billion deficit. Another massive liberal deficit. And just to give you an
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idea of the mountain of debt that has accumulated under Justin Trudeau, now in terms of all the
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revenue the federal government gathers from the GST, that covers merely debt servicing costs.
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That's not even paying it off. That's just paying the interest.
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That's just paying the interest. That is an incredible stat when you just try to put a picture
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in your mind. Yeah. And you know, Justin Trudeau talks about how concerned he is about health care,
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and yet we pay more on interest under Justin Trudeau than the federal government pays to the
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provinces by way of the Canada Health Transfer. So the bottom line is it's more spending, more debt,
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and that means higher interest rates, and even worse inflation, exacerbating the cost of living
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crisis that everyday Canadians are facing. And you know, what's truly staggering is that when you
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watch Chrystia Freeland table the budget, she talks about all of these problems, as if they've
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inherited them. They've been in power for nine years. These are problems that Justin Trudeau
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created. That's right. The cost of living crisis, the fact that housing costs have doubled, rent has
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doubled, food has never been more expensive, and Justin Trudeau is making it worse, of course,
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with another carbon tax hike last month, a reservation. Yeah, it seems like the government
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doesn't know what to do, right? I think they're just in panic mode right now, and they've been that
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way for a while after Justin Trudeau's losing traction amongst Canadians of all demographics
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and age levels. They're just in panic mode, but they don't necessarily believe what the liberals of
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Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien did, more, you know, free market principles, allowing, you know,
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free enterprise to create economic conditions. They are almost to the point where they're starting to
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punish success now. Well, and a big theme of the budget was growing government, growing government
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to take control away from everyday Canadians and putting it in the hands of the government.
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After nine years of failure, what this budget was, was Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland doubling down
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on nine years of failed policies. Higher taxes, more spending, more debt, and more government.
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Seems that they only have two speeds, big government and bigger government. Exactly. And they're just
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squeezing out, and of course, unfortunately, it's the middle class, or the shrinking middle class that
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has to pay these bills. We'll get into a deeper dive next week about that, but I wanted to get your
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initial thoughts. It is pretty incredible, this budget, and unfortunately, Canadians are going to have to
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pay the price on this one. Something that happened over the last few weeks is the public inquiry
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and foreign interference, but it was kind of a day's story. But I can tell you, if Stephen Harper had been in
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charge, and that the revelations in this inquiry came out under Harper's watch, the media would be in full
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down, meltdown mode, and barely getting a coverage. Why don't you give us a bit of an update on what's going on?
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We do have a clip play as well. Maybe just outline what has happened in the last little bit.
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Well, what is coming out of the inquiry is confirmation that the Prime Minister was repeatedly
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briefed about Beijing's interference, including Beijing's interference in the 2019 and 21 elections,
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and the fact that Trudeau did nothing. He hid that, his knowledge of Beijing's interference from
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Canadians, and he essentially denied that he had been briefed when it was alleged that he had been
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last year, which led to this inquiry being launched. And we now know that the Prime Minister
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Trudeau was not truthful. Yeah, Katie Telford said in the first round, Prime Minister Trudeau reads
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everything. And now, as she just pointed out, it's kind of, well, no, I didn't read it. It's a bit of
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an issue. Well, Telford, when she appeared before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee, was
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unequivocal. She said that the Prime Minister reads everything. When something is put on the Prime
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Minister's desk, he reads it. I think we knew that wasn't true, but anyway. Yes, and now the Prime
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Minister of the Inquiry admitted, or at least in an interview before the Inquiry, with counsel for
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the Inquiry, he said, well, in fact, he doesn't read really anything. But sometimes he reads things,
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sometimes he doesn't. So, clearly inconsistent with what Katie Telford said. Frankly, Katie Telford
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lied. Yes. And the Prime Minister has lied, because he essentially denied that he was aware
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of Beijing's interference, that he hadn't really been briefed about these particulars around some
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of the activities of Beijing in 2019 and 21. We now know that that simply isn't true. The director
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of CSIS had briefed the Prime Minister repeatedly about these matters. And Justin Trudeau's chief of
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staff, Telford, Jeremy Broadhurst, his deputy chief of staff, when they appeared before the committee,
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they said, well, they didn't see, they were not briefed. And the director of CSIS didn't brief them
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using some of the language that they said was a surprise to them. And the director of CSIS was called
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back and he confirmed that he had repeatedly briefed Prime Minister about particulars concerning Beijing's
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interference. And so, again, this is a Prime Minister who covered up Beijing's interference. He was essentially
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prepared to go along with it so long as it benefited the Liberal Party. That's right. When he got caught in terms of
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covering, he tried to then cover it up. And so, the Prime Minister has not been fruitful about his
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knowledge and his acquiescence in essence to Beijing's interference. But nothing is Justin Trudeau's
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fault. That's just the theme. No matter what goes wrong, not Trudeau's fault. It's really quite
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amazing. But at the same time, we have foreign actors influencing our elections. And this should
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be concerning to everyone, no matter what side of the fence you're on. Absolutely. And just to also
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further illustrate the culture of this government, when there was interference and misinformation by
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Beijing in 2019 in terms of a Facebook post, the PCO told Facebook to take it down. The Prime
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Minister's personal department told Facebook to take that misinformation or disinformation down
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because it was negative towards the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, when the PCO, the Prime Minister's
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department, when the Prime Minister's election panel that he appointed, supposedly to guard against
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foreign interference, were informed that Beijing was spreading disinformation about the Conservative
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Party, about Erin O'Toole, about sitting members of Parliament like Kenny Chu, who ultimately lost a seat,
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no doubt, in part because of Beijing's disinformation, if not entirely because of that,
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they were kept in the dark. Yeah. And so it shows that when it negatively impacts the Prime Minister,
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they're all over it. When it is targeting and hurting the Conservative Party, and otherwise advancing
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the influence of the Liberal Party, they're all okay with it. Yeah. It just goes to show you even the
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double standard too, right? Like the, again, the media would be in full-blown meltdown mode had Stephen
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Harper participated in what Justin Trudeau was doing. It would, the, the, the, that's why we say
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this, this type of thing should, should be relevant to anyone, any Canadian, regardless of what side
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you're on, because it shouldn't be used that way. The government should be clear with everyone,
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treating everyone the same. But if, if, as you said, if it's benefiting the Liberal government,
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they, they will allow it to continue. If it's hurting, they will try to shut you down. We can also
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talk about the censorship legislation, but we don't want to go down that, that hole. But let's keep the
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interference part. Right. And it's as bad as it is, but Justin Trudeau turned a blind, turned a blind eye
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to Beijing's interference because it benefited the Liberal Party. It gets worse because there is new
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explosive allegations that Justin Trudeau's inner circle, someone in Justin Trudeau's inner circle
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leaked classified information to tip off Han Dong, who was the Liberal member of Parliament for Don
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Valley, nor if he still is a member of Parliament, not a, not a Liberal caucus, that Dong was being
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monitored by CSIS. So he got the heads up in advance. So what happened was, at the public
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inquiry, it was confirmed that top Liberal officials were briefed in September of 2019
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that Beijing had interfered in the Don Valley North Liberal nomination to assist Han Dong. More
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specifically, students, Chinese students, were threatened by and coerced by Beijing that they
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might lose their student visas and that there could be repercussions for them or and their families
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if they didn't support Han Dong by showing up at the nomination. So Beijing interfered in that
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nomination. The Prime Minister's top Liberal officials, three of them, were briefed by CSIS,
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another advisor to the Prime Minister who also had a security clearance was subsequently informed by
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one of the three Liberals who were briefed and then the Prime Minister was briefed. Now in with that
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knowledge, the Prime Minister did nothing. He allowed Han Dong to remain as a Liberal candidate and he
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welcomed him in to the Liberal caucus and he was not long ago talking about how proud he was to have
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had Han Dong as part of the Liberal team. He doesn't like to talk too much about Han Dong now. But with
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regards to this leak, one of those officials leaked that classified information that in turn led to Han Dong
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being tipped off. Now this is a very, very serious matter. It's a criminal matter. It is a
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con prevention of the Security of Information Act, more specifically Section 4 of that Act. It is an indictable
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offence, punishable by up to 14 years behind bars. So whichever Liberal, whichever, and it was a small
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number of people, we're talking about four people plus the Prime Minister who were either directly briefed by
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by CSIS or who were briefed on the contents of that briefing. Who among them leaked that information because
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whoever did committed a crime and if they were prosecuted and convicted, they could find themselves
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sitting in a federal penitentiary for a good decade.
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Have the police opened up the investigation yet?
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I have written to the RCMP bringing to their attention the allegations that were made about this leak,
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allegations that were made by a top national security official. And I just want to underscore
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the seriousness of this. This is someone in Justin Trudeau's inner circle who in leaking classified
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information undermined the work of an active CSIS intelligence operation. They compromised CSIS' sources
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and methods and potentially compromised someone working or multiple persons who were working for CSIS.
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They could have put people's lives at risk. And they put the interest, once again, of the Liberal
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Party ahead of the national interest and ahead of national security.
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Yeah, it seems the Liberal Party does that quite often, or at least this Prime Minister doesn't.
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Let's queue up cut one. We have a quick clip to play. It just basically summarizes
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everything we've talked about, then we can expand a bit more on it. So let's play cut one.
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A declassified summary of CSIS intelligence was entered into evidence late Thursday,
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in which CSIS reported that in 2021, some individual People's Republic of China officials in Canada
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made comments expressing a preference for a Liberal Party minority government.
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Two days ago, a 2021 Conservative candidate, Kenny Chu, testified.
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Chu lost his re-election bid after a barrage of disinformation was aimed at him.
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Disinformation that security officials believe may have been coordinated by China.
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There you go. And CSIS informed Justin Trudeau's election panel, and they sat on it.
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Kenny Chu was kept in the dark. And the Prime Minister had been later briefed about Beijing's interference
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in the 21 election, including, specifically, in Kenny Chu's writing. Now, members of Justin Trudeau's election panel,
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that again was appointed supposedly, supposedly to guard against foreign interference, claimed that
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the threshold under the critical election incident protocol had not been met. The threshold had not been met.
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Well, that simply isn't true. If one actually reads the protocol, when candidates are being targeted by
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foreign interference, the protocol provides that they should be informed. Why was Kenny Chu not informed?
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And when you're talking about interference, targeting multiple candidates, conservative candidates,
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and actually more broadly, the conservative party, because Erin O'Toole was a target,
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the protocol provides that when it impacts a national election, that the public should be informed. Why wasn't the public informed?
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They failed miserably. And as a result, Beijing was able to get away with sowing disinformation.
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Yeah. They politicized something that's supposed to be not political.
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Amongst the Chinese diaspora that had a material impact in multiple ridings across Canada. So, it's very concerning.
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Absolutely. And incredibly, these members of parliament and others had won. Kenny Chu won in 2019, when the polls are riding
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high. And the polls were even higher nationally in these conditions in 2021. But somehow, these individuals
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started to lose these seats when the vote share was going up. So, it really didn't make any sense that
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that this would happen, leading to these revelations that there was something more at play than just an unfortunate couple of turnouts in these ridings.
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Well, that's right. And these were ridings that, in many cases, had been won by relatively comfortable margins,
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as recently as 2019. And then suddenly, these incumbents lost. That's right.
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When, as you note, the overall conservative vote
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share was going up, not down, including in ridings that were neighboring. That's right.
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Uh, ridings. And, and so, um, what happened was that Beijing spread, uh, disinformation in a fairly
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sophisticated way. And there was a fairly sophisticated effort to suppress the vote amongst Chinese Canadians,
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and to sow fear within the, uh, Chinese Canadian diaspora communities.
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Yeah, absolutely. Well, we're pretty much out of time. As you know,
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the guests get the last word, so the floor is yours. Well, we're going to work hard to continue to
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demand answers, uh, that Canadians deserve, uh, about what did the Prime Minister know,
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and what did he know about it, and what did he do or fail to do about Beijing's interference. And what it
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appears, based on what we're hearing, uh, at the inquiry, uh, is that, uh, he covered it up, uh, and was
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happy to go along with it. And we need to get answers, uh, surrounding this leak. Uh, you know,
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who leaked this? Absolutely. Who, who leaked it? Who tipped off Handong? When did the Prime Minister
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learn about this criminal leak? And did he refer it to the RCMP, or did he cover it up? So lots of questions.
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Michael Cooper, please keep up the good work. We appreciate your time. You're doing a fantastic job
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on this file. It's unfortunate that the Liberals are keeping you so busy, but we, we do appreciate
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your time. Keeping all of us busy with all of the scandals. It's tough to keep on top of.
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Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. It's time for this government to go. Uh, St. Albert Edmonton is
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the riding. Michael Cooper is his name. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time as well. Uh,
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as I mentioned off the top, a very important topic. Not exactly getting the coverage, I think, and,
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and Michael thinks that it should. So we ask you to help us out. Please like, comment, subscribe,
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iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. New content every single Tuesday,
00:20:01.660
1.30 p.m. Eastern time. Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.