LILLEY: Carney snaps at reporter over questions about China
As questions persist about Mark Carney's ties to China, the Liberal Leader get snarky and attacks the media
Article content
China is an issue that won’t leave Liberal Leader Mark Carney alone and it’s clearly getting to him.
On Thursday, he snapped at a reporter and disparaged a major daily newspaper for their coverage of his campaign and connections with China.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
LILLEY: Carney snaps at reporter over questions about China Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t believe everything you read in The Globe and Mail,” Carney said.
His remarks were nasty in tone, he was snarky. He also seemed to be channeling Justin Trudeau who famously said, “The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false.”
Those words were in response to reporting in February 2019 that said Trudeau had tried to pressure his then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to drop a prosecution against SNC-Lavalin and when she wouldn’t, he dropped her as attorney general. Despite Trudeau denying it, all of the allegations ended up being true, so it’s a bad look for Carney to be reminding people of Trudeau and his lies.
On Thursday, The Globe and Mail reported that Carney had met with executives from the Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada.
The JCCC is a Toronto-based group founded more than twenty years ago to ostensibly foster ties between China and Canada, but it is widely viewed as a front group for China’s United Front Work Department. The UFWD works on behalf of the Chinese government in Beijing to, among other things, spy on and exert influence over the Chinese diaspora in places like Canada.
Carney was angry in responding to the Globe reporter who asked about the meeting.
“I’ve never heard of this group, okay? Never heard of this group. Certainly didn’t have a setup meeting with this group, full stop. So check your sources before you write things like that,” Carney said.
Moments later, Steven Chase, one of the Globe reporters who wrote the original story, posted photos of Carney smiling and shaking hands with two different executives from the JCCC.
Carney’s defence, and there is some validity to it, is that he meets many people at events and takes lots of photos with people.
“I’m a politician. I go to events where there are hundreds and 1000s, you know, 1000s, over the course of a day, of different people there. That is not a meeting. If somebody happens to be in the room (and) takes a picture with me, that’s not a meeting, okay?” Carney said.
While that is a valid excuse for a grip-and-grin photo such as this, a courtesy I extend to all politicians, it’s not an excuse the Liberals allow for when a Conservative politician is caught in the same situation.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Clearly though, and you can hear it in his voice, you can pick up from his choice of words, the issue of China is getting to Carney. For the past two weeks, Carney and the Liberals have been dogged with bad stories relating to China and being too close to Beijing.
Last week it was his candidate Paul Chiang encouraging people to kidnap Conservative candidate Joe Tay and hand him over to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto in exchange for a bounty. It took Carney four days to drop Chiang and replace him with Peter Yuen, who is now being accused of being associated with the JCCC and other pro-Beijing Chinese groups in Toronto.
And, of course, this week the federal government’s Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force, revealed a coordinated effort by the Chinese government to boost Mark Carney’s appeal to Chinese Canadian voters.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
This included what was described as “large spikes of coordinated inauthentic behaviour” where articles positive about Carney from Beijing-aligned media outlets were boosted on the WeChat social media platform by accounts and influencers with ties to the Chinese government. The goal, to boost Mark Carney in the eyes of Chinese Canadian voters. Basically, China is trying to persuade Chinese Canadians to vote Liberal.
This came after the same tactics were used during the Liberal leadership campaign to attack and disparage Carney’s main rival, Chrystia Freeland. Beijing is clearly still interfering in Canada’s elections and Beijing clearly favours Mark Carney and the Liberals.
Based on his reaction Thursday, it would appear Carney would really like these stories to go away or, at the very least, he wants people to stop asking about China.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.