Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada denied a diplomatic visa application for a Chinese political operative last fall.
Joly made the comment before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa Thursday. The procedure and House affairs committee is studying foreign interference in Canada’s elections.
“When China wanted to send a political operative last fall, we decided to deny a visa. Which obviously is the right thing to do,” Joly told the committee.
Earlier in the day, the Globe and Mail reported that the Chinese government had applied for a visa for a new position at its embassy in Ottawa, which it called the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
A source with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak publicly told CBC News Global Affairs Canada concluded the posting was not a diplomatic one and was suspicious.
The source said the department believes the new role was meant to allow a political operative from the Communist Party to come to Canada.
Joly sparred with Conservative MPs about whether Canada has expelled any Chinese diplomats.
“One visa denied, not a single diplomat expelled. Hardly the actions of a government that takes Beijing’s interference seriously,” said MP Michael Cooper.
Joly argued expulsions come with ramifications for Canadian diplomats as well.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper speaks to members of the media during a break at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) regarding foreign election interference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on March 1. (Spencer Colby/Canadian Press)
“For any expulsion there is an expulsion afterwards of us in China and right now our biggest challenge is to understand how China operates, how they plan, how they work,” she said.
“I believe profoundly in the importance of diplomacy and our diplomats. More than ever we need capacity. We need eyes and ears on the ground.”
MPs call on Cooper to apologize to Joly
Joly said the issue has been raised along diplomatic lines and came up in a recent meeting with her counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, during a G20 meeting in New Delhi earlier this month.
“I was extremely clear. I looked him in the eyes and said to him, first, we will never tolerate any form of foreign interference in our democracy and international affairs,” she said.
That spurred Cooper to respond with comments that were later called out as “demeaning.”
“You’ve talked tough with your Beijing counterparts, so you say. You even stared into his eyes,” Cooper said during an exchange with Joly.
“I am sure he was very intimidated.”
WATCH | MP Cooper rips foreign affairs minister’s approach to China:
‘I’m sure he was very intimidated’: MP to Joly during testimony on election interference
1 day ago
Duration 0:14
At the procedure and House affairs committee, Conservative MP Michael Cooper questions whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly ‘talked tough’ with her counterpart in Beijing.
NDP MP Rachel Blaney said the comment, aimed at a woman in a position of power, was “shameful.”
“I remember at the very beginning of my career being asked if I was tough enough to do the job. And I think it’s absolutely devastating that that sort of frame of reference would be used in this way,” she said.
As the committee wound down, Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell rose on a point of order and called on Cooper to apologize for the “constant demeaning nature that only occurs to our female minister that appeared today.”
“There’s a lot of things around this place that make me puke in my mouth often,” said Liberal MP Bardish Chagger, chair of the committee.
“We can be better than this.”
Cooper did not apologize before Chagger suspended the meeting. He later sent an statement to CBC defending his comments.
“My comments had nothing to do with the minister’s gender and everything to do with the lack of action by her and her government to hold the regime in Beijing accountable for interfering in our elections,” he said in an email from his office. “My comments apply equally to the Prime Minister and her Liberal predecessors in the role.”
WATCH | MPs demand apology from Conservative MP over ‘constant, demeaning’ remarks to Minister Joly:
MPs demand apology from Conservative MP over ‘constant, demeaning’ remarks to Minister Joly
1 day ago
Duration 1:38
Multiple MPs who are members of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee demanded an apology from Alberta Conservative MP Michael Cooper after a comment he made Thursday about Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly’s toughness. Liberal MP and committee chair Bardish Chagger said there were a lot of things ‘that make me puke in my mouth.’
Thursday’s meeting was just the latest back-and-forth between the government and the opposition about the Liberals’ response to Chinese interference.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — and members of the press gallery — tried multiple times Wednesday to get the prime minister to respond to allegations that he and his national security adviser were warned that Chinese government officials were funnelling money to Canadian political candidates.
According to reporting by Global News, the Privy Council Office prepared a report for the Trudeau government warning that Chinese officials in Toronto had disbursed money to a “covert network tasked to interfere in Canada’s 2019 election.”
WATCH | Trudeau ducks questions on election interference warning:
Trudeau dodges questions about election interference warning
2 days ago
Duration 2:04
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dodged questions on Wednesday about whether he was briefed in 2019 about China trying to interfere in Canada’s election.
“A large clandestine transfer of funds earmarked for the federal election from the PRC Consulate in Toronto was transferred to an elected provincial government official via a staff member of a 2019 federal candidate,” the report says, according to Global.
Global reported similar allegations back in November — that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed Trudeau in January 2022 on Chinese efforts to interfere in that election. The interference reportedly included the Chinese government sending money to at least 11 candidates.
“We have no information on any federal candidates receiving money from China. That is still the case,” Trudeau said in the House of Commons Wednesday.
Trudeau said he can’t delve into issues of national security and suggested a recently announced special rapporteur and two intelligence agencies are better placed to answer questions about foreign interference.
Global also reported on information it said came from Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, which reviews national security matters and whose members are sworn to secrecy.
Government House leader Mark Holland said that is alarming.
“I am deeply concerned that classified information in this country would be treated with such carelessness,” he told reporters Thursday.
The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, one of the country’s intelligence watchdogs, announced Thursday that it would be conducting a review of how CSIS assessed intelligence relating to foreign interference in the previous two elections.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
