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Chinese leader Xi Jinping angrily confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G20 meeting Wednesday, complaining Mr. Trudeau’s office had published details of an earlier conversation between them.
You can see the encounter in footage, posted by CPAC, here.
Mr. Trudeau was able to grab a brief, unofficial aside with Mr. Xi on Tuesday afternoon, during which he raised concerns about alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to accounts Canadian officials provided to multiple media outlets. Beijing made no reference to their meeting, nor was it covered in state media.
But Globe and Mail Asia Correspondent James Griffiths reports here that in an exchange captured by a Canadian cameraman around 3 p.m. local time Wednesday, as the G20 summit was wrapping up, an unhappy-looking Mr. Xi confronted Mr. Trudeau, gesturing with his hand at the room.
“Everything we said has been leaked to the papers – that’s not appropriate,” Mr. Xi said, adding, “that’s not the way the conversation was conducted.
“If you are sincere, we should communicate with each other in a respectful manner, otherwise it will be hard to say what the result will be like,” he said as Mr. Trudeau nods, waiting for a translation.
Mr. Trudeau responds that he hopes the two sides can continue to “work constructively together,” adding, “In Canada, we believe in a free and open and frank dialogue,” to which Mr. Xi replies, “Let’s create the conditions first,” before shaking the Canadian leader’s hand and walking off.
In Ottawa, Michael Chong, the Official Opposition foreign affairs critic, said Mr. Trudeau went to the summit unprepared to represent Canada’s interests and values.
“We’ve yet to have the Indo-Pacific strategy from the government and that should have been completed long ago so that the Prime Minister could have gone to this summit prepared to defend Canada’s interests and values,” the Conservative MP told journalists after the weekly party caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.
Mr. Chong called on Mr. Trudeau to identify the 11 federal-election candidates said to have received illicit funds from China.
He was referring to a Nov. 7 Global News report here that said Canadian intelligence officials have warned Mr. Trudeau China has allegedly funded a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
ONTARIO EDUCATION UNION ANNOUNCES STRIKE NOTICE – The union representing Ontario’s education support workers has issued another five-days strike notice – just two days after the government repealed a controversial bill that imposed a contract and used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to ban their right to strike. Story here.
PM EXTENDS TRAINING MISSION OF UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is extending Canada’s training mission of Ukrainian soldiers after reports that a missile killed two people in Poland this week, though world leaders are urging calm as early findings suggest it was not an intentional attack. Story here.
EX-CBSA HEAD SURPRISED ABOUT LIMITS ON OFFICER POWERS – The former head of the Canada Border Services Agency was surprised to learn last winter that officers did not have the authority to stop would-be protesters from entering the country as demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions were gaining momentum across Canada, he testified Wednesday. Story here.
PBO RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT WORKERS BENEFIT – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s $4-billion increase to the Canada Workers Benefit will primarily go to Canadians who are no longer eligible for the program, according to a new report by Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux that raises strong concerns with the government’s latest financial plan. Story here.
HORGAN OFFERS TO BE HEALTH CARE EMISSARY – John Horgan is in his last days as British Columbia premier, but says he would be willing to play a role after he leaves his post facilitating talks on a federal-provincial health care deal. Story here. Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun reports here on how the leadership style of Mr. Horgan’s successor, David Eby, will differ from the departing premier.
NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN – Canada has imposed fresh sanctions on Iran, targeting individuals involved in alleged human-rights abuses and companies it accused of supplying Russia with drones for use in Ukraine, the Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement on Wednesday. Story here.
QUESTIONS ABOUT SMITH’S CHEROKEE HERITAGE – APTN News, working with a genealogist, has looked into claims of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith that her great, great grandmother was a member of the Cherokee Nation, making her a person of mixed-race ancestry. In a report here, they say there is no evidence to demonstrate that the Premier’s family is Cherokee.
INFLATION RATE STEADY IN OCTOBER – Canada’s inflation rate held steady in October at elevated levels, and gasoline costs rose sharply, snapping a three-month streak of slowing growth for consumer prices. Story here.
NO QUBEC PLANS TO SOFTEN BILL 96 – Quebec’s new minister responsible for the French language says he has no plans to soften the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s language law, Bill 96, or ease up on applying its rules through regulations. Story here from the Montreal Gazette.
QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT CANCER CARE IN B.C. – Growing wait times for cancer care in British Columbia are worsening outcomes for patients and leaving some to die before their first medical consultations, a situation doctors say is causing both themselves and those they treat to lose faith in the cancer care system. Story here.
MANITOBA TORIES PITCH POLICY TO BOLSTER RE-ELECTION BID – Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government promised to improve health care, tackle crime and set up new oversight for teachers in a pre-election Throne Speech on Tuesday. Story here. CBC reports here on how the policy commitments are connected to the party’s bid to woo moderate Winnipeg voters who are key to the PCs winning another term.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS – Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, Nov. 16, accessible here.
DAYS SINCE CONSERVATIVE LEADER PIERRE POILIEVRE TOOK MEDIA QUESTIONS IN OTTAWA: 64
GOODBYE TO THE BC LIBERALS – The BC Liberals, who governed the province from 2001 to 2017, are getting a name change. Party members have voted to change the party’s name to BC United. More than 8,000 members cast ballots in the online vote, which began last Sunday and concluded on Tuesday. The BC Liberals have no official ties with the federal party. Members have included both federal Conservatives and federal Liberals. In a statement, the party said BC United has been registered with Elections BC, and the party will retain registration of the BC Liberal name, and all associated domains, to avoid any other party obtaining its use. There’s a story here on the change.
BENNETT IN IQALUIT – Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett, in Iqaluit, Nunavut, makes an infrastructure announcement.
GOULD IN OTTAWA – Families Minister Karina Gould, in Ottawa, announced the launch of an online questionnaire to seek feedback on a national school food policy.
GUILBEAULT IN EGYPT – Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, continues to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is running to Friday.
SAJJAN IN KELOWNA – Harjit Sajjan, Minister for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, in Kelowna, B.C., announced the launch of new PacificCan offices in the Okanagan city and Cranbrook.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Bali, Indonesia for the G20 summit, participated in a NATO and G7 leaders’ meeting, met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, attended the G20 Working Session III on digital transformation and the G20 closing session, and held a media availability.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, attended the NDP caucus meeting, met with Unifor president Lana Payne, and was scheduled to take questions from journalists and participate in Question Period.
No schedules available for other party leaders.
THE DECIBEL
On Wednesday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Africa Bureau Chief Geoffrey York explains why a peace agreement between Ethiopia and Tigray is so desperately needed. The brutal two-year-long civil war has led to the death of as many 600,000 people. Mr. York talks about how the arrival of aid is a step in the right direction and why a number of factors still exist that could threaten its implementation. The Decibel is here.
OPINION
The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on why the Ukraine war is unlikely to end anytime soon: “All wars end at the negotiating table, and this one will be no different. Diplomacy will have its day. Eventually. But for now, the two sides to the conflict – the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin – remain far apart, at least in their public statements.”
Shannon Proudfoot (The Globe and Mail) on how RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki is untroubled, even in hindsight: “And then into this maelstrom came RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki on Tuesday, wearing some sort of invisibility cloak of bland calm. She was polite, placid, neither especially blessed of memory nor apparently troubled by its gaps, enthusiastic about certain subtleties of her job, but resolutely incurious about others. Commissioner Lucki was, by her own description, sitting at the fulcrum of all the stress and uncertainty during the Ottawa protests, responsible for conveying vital information about the operations of various police agencies to federal officials and politicians in multiple high-level daily briefings. “We always got the same question each and every day: ‘When is this going to end? How is it going to end?’” she told the inquiry.”
Eric Reguly (The Globe and Mail) on coal: the black, unbeatable monster at the Egyptian climate summit and every other one: “If you had to distill the theme of almost every UN climate summit into one word, it would be “coal.” Coal is the perennial bogeyman of the Conference of the Parties, as it is at the event’s latest edition, COP27, now under way in Egypt. By now there is essentially zero debate among governments, climate scientists and even the coal industry itself that holding global average temperature increases to 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels is impossible as long as coal remains the single-biggest source of power generation. It is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Last year, coal emissions accounted for at least a quarter of all planet-warming carbon dioxide output, according to the International Energy Agency.”
Jason Nickerson and Adam Houston (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how a viable vaccine for Ebola’s latest strain is shamefully collecting a decade of dust in Canada: “And yet a viable vaccine candidate – produced more than a decade ago in a Canadian government laboratory – has spent years sitting on a shelf, still undeveloped and unavailable for use because of a medical research and development system that is driven by commercial gain rather than by public-health needs. Researchers at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg discovered a suitable vaccine candidate in the 2000s, but instead of being subjected to clinical trials and developed for patient use, it has been collecting dust.”
Dean Beeby (Transparency Journalism) on the access-to-information hamster wheel: “Canada’s information commissioners have complained for years they can’t do their jobs properly without more money. Investigating citizen complaints about access-to-information requests requires trained staff. And a chronic shortage of cash means they can’t hire enough people for growing piles of work, now at record levels. So it’s surprising to learn the office has repeatedly failed to spend the money it already has. Over the last decade, the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada has “lapsed” a total of $6.4-million in funds that Parliament authorized, according to the Public Accounts of Canada.”
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