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Candice and Andrew will be discussing when the Canadian economy will re-open and how the mainstream media are a bunch of hacks.
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The Canadian government is watching closely to see whether the UK will reverse course on their decision to allow Huawei access to their 5G network after more information has come to light regarding China’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
A growing opposition within the UK’s ruling Conservative Party is looking to foil Boris Johnson’s plans to grant Huawei access to non-sensitive parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure.
In January, Johnson’s government decided that Huawei would be granted a cap of 35% involvement in the network.
However, the global coronavirus pandemic has forced the UK government to reconsider its relationship with China.
Those close to the Johnson government are saying that the government’s Huawei bill won’t be passed.
“I think the mood in the parliamentary party has hardened. And I think it’s a shared realization of what it means for dependence on a business that is part of a state that does not share our values. That has become clearer,” Conservative chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee told Bloomberg.
As for Canada, the office of Public Safety Minister Bill Blair indicated they were following new developments closely.
“While we cannot comment on specific companies, an examination of emerging 5G technology and the associated security and economic considerations is underway,” Press Secretary Mary-Liz Power told True North when asked whether they were keeping tabs on the UK’s decision.
“We are taking all security factors into account, including those from our Allies and our security agencies. We will ensure that our networks are kept secure and will take the appropriate decisions in due course.”
True North spoke to security expert and Queen’s University and Royal Military College Professor Christian Leuprecht on how a UK reversal could affect the Canadian government’s approach to Huawei.
“You’re watching the right precedent. It’s probably indicative of how the Canadian government was hoping to approach this issue. Canada was always hoping to balance the economic imperatives and the security imperatives,” said Leuprecht.
According to Leuprecht, the UK has a Huawei evaluation centre set up within the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and “if you read between the lines of the last three years’ reports […] The reports keep getting worse.”
“It basically says that Huawei equipment is poor equipment. It’s poorly built and its performance is subpar and Huawei does not know how to fix its own equipment. That’s essentially the conclusion. Why would we put substandard equipment into what is going to be an infinitely more complex network?”
In response to the growing political hostility to the UK government’s original plans, Huawei executive Victor Zhang pleaded with the government in an open letter, claiming that they had helped the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is pretty crass and tasteless that Huawei yet again is trying to use this crisis for their own ends and Chinese state ends,” UK Conservative MP Bob Seely said about Zhang’s pleas.
‘It is clear there is going to be a change of opinion about China after all this and Huawei is going to be part of that.”
US officials have been very vocal in lobbying their intelligence partners and allies to reject Huawei’s bids, claiming that the company’s involvement could create national security risks and harm the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing relationship which is composed of Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox Business Network that China’s failure to be transparent about the coronavirus will cause countries to rethink their decisions regarding Huawei.
“I am very confident that this moment — this moment where the Chinese Communist Party failed to be transparent and open and handle data in an appropriate way — will cause many, many countries rethink what they were doing with respect to their telecom architecture,” said Pompeo.
“And when Huawei comes knocking to sell them equipment and hardware, that they will have a different prism through which to view that decision.”
According to Leuprecht, China’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has changed the context under which governments like the UK must make a decision on Huawei’s 5G involvement.
“The context has changed under which the UK decision was taken, which is the realization of the arguments people like myself have made, that China cannot be trusted,” said Leuprecht.
“Ultimately the Huawei argument comes down to trust. Can we trust the Chinese and Huawei? Can we take them by their word? If their technology is reliable, can we trust it? Will it be compromised and is it not subject to interference by Chinese intelligence? And the underperformance by the Chinese on the virus has been a case study for people to go that China and its corporations simply cannot be trusted to do the right thing.”
In a year when China repeatedly threatened and insulted Canada, the Trudeau government gave the Chinese communist regime millions in aid money.
According to data uncovered by Blacklock’s Reporter, Canada gave China $41 million worth of foreign aid in 2019.
China has an economy worth $13 trillion and has spent billions on a national space program and nuclear weapons.
While most of the funds were distributed through third-party organizations such as the World Bank, at least $1.6 million came directly from Environment Canada.
“Canada and China continue to build on a long-standing history of collaboration on the environment and climate change,” then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said.
“Pollution knows no borders.”
Since December 2018 Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been in a Chinese prison on charges of stealing “state secrets.” Their arrests are widely believed to be retribution for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
Despite Canada providing China with millions in aid money and recent donations of medical supplies, China has made it clear that Canada-China relations will remain strained so long as Meng is under house arrest.
Throughout 2019, China repeatedly insulted Canada in a wave of aggression motivated by the arrest of Meng.
One government spokesman warned of “consequences” for helping the United States in their proceedings against Meng. China’s then-ambassador to Canada also claimed the arrest of Meng was motivated by “white supremacy” on the part of Canada.
In 2019, China banned Canadian meat and canola, citing unspecific health concerns. The bans lasted several months before China allowed Canadian products again near the end of the year.
China’s ambassador to Canada says China is not to blame for the coronavirus pandemic and warns Canadians that saying otherwise is racist.
In a guest column in Ottawa Life Magazine, Ambassador Cong Peiwu said claims that China lied about the extent of the coronavirus pandemic are baseless.
“Some people accused China of concealing information about the outbreak and making data opaque. Such claims are groundless,” Cong wrote.
“The Chinese side has kept the international community updated on the pandemic in the spirit of openness, transparency, and responsibility.”
Cong went on to say associating the coronavirus with China is akin to promoting racism.
“A handful of politicians in some countries insisted on calling the novel coronavirus ‘Chinese virus’ and ‘Wuhan virus’ for ulterior motives, to which the Chinese side is firmly opposed,” he wrote.
“Stigmatization cannot stop the spread of the virus but will only aggravate racial discrimination, xenophobia, and even lead to violent crime. This ‘political virus’ is just as harmful as the novel coronavirus.”
Cong claims that China is prepared to deliver aid to Canada. In March, Cong said that the aid Canada sent to China to fight the coronavirus would not improve relations between the two countries.
Numerous reports published in recent weeks have suggested that China lied about the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in their country, including falsifying their data.
Earlier this week, it was reported that there is “increasing confidence” within the U.S. government that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan, rather than a wet market as officially claimed.
On Friday, China raised the official number of coronavirus deaths in Wuhan by 50% to 3,869.
On Wednesday, Deputy Public Works Minister Bill Matthews testified to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health that over 100,000 coronavirus test swabs ordered from China were found to have mould on them.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the inspections are taking days as the government is importing goods from “unfamiliar suppliers.”
“We’re in a world where the volume is just so far above what we’re used to and we’re dealing with companies we’ve never had to deal with before. There is an ongoing active test on every piece that comes in. We check for quality,” said Matthews.
“We are buying products at a high volume from unfamiliar suppliers and that can present challenges both in terms of delivery and in terms of quality.”
This is not the first time that Chinese equipment was found to be faulty and of subpar quality.
As exclusively reported by True North, the City of Toronto admitted that they never tested 200,000 masks manufactured in China before recalling the gear due to reports of “ripping and tearing.”
“Our procurement team had pictures of the masks that were ordered but didn’t receive specifications or samples of these specific masks,” a City of Toronto spokesperson told True North.
“Going forward, all PPE ordered will be held to a stricter quality assurance process to ensure top quality and protection for our frontline workers.”
Other nations are also reporting problems with equipment imported from China. For example, the Netherlands recalled 600,000 face masks for not meeting quality and safety standards.
According to Matthews, the supplies promised to Canada by China have been slow to arrive. In total, Canada ordered 130 million N95 respirators but only 609,000 have been delivered thus far. Meanwhile, not one of the 32,000 ventilators ordered for the severely ill has been sent out from China.
The Liberal government gave $828,046 in funding to a virology lab in Wuhan for coronavirus testing according to Rebel News Reporter Sheila Gunn Reid.
“This research addresses the urgent need of rapid point-of-care diagnostics of COVID-19. The collaborative research is conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of virologists, chemists, infectious disease specialists, front-line practitioners, and public health researchers from the University of Alberta, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Wuhan Institute of Virology (China),” wrote a Government of Canada press release from March.
Both the US and the UK governments are investigating whether the origin of the virus was at one of two labs in Wuhan.
According to the Washington Post, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s potential for an outbreak has been on the radar of US officials for some time.
In 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing repeatedly sent diplomats to the institute who then reported sensitive information back to Washington. According to the diplomatic cables, the diplomats issued warnings to the US government concerned with the safety of the lab’s operations.
One of the cables obtained by the Washington Post also warned that the lab’s work on bat coronaviruses could pose a pandemic risk.
A new report by Fox News reveals that government sources familiar with briefings on China’s handling of the virus believe with “increasing confidence” that the virus could have escaped from a Chinese lab.
Ministers within the UK government have also expressed concern and doubt over China’s original claim that the virus emerged in a wet market in Wuhan. Senior government sources told the Daily Mail that the lab origin theory is “no longer being discounted.”
Critics from around the world are increasingly scrutinizing China’s handling of the original coronavirus outbreak and accusing the government of a coverup.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the Chinese Communist Party withheld warning the public about a potential pandemic for six crucial days.
By the time that President Xi Jinping informed the public about the outbreak, over 3,000 people were already infected with the coronavirus.
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In January, True North’s Candice Malcolm raised some valid concerns questioning the link between China’s high-security infectious disease labs and the new deadly virus.
This theory is looking more credible with each passing day.
As Chinese communist officials ramp up their propaganda efforts, working hand in hand with the corrupt and discredited World Health Organization, it’s more important than ever for Canadians to know the truth.
Candice says this is why it’s so important that fake news journalists be called out for their dishonesty.
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer has joined over a hundred politicians and world leaders in condemning China’s early coverup of the coronavirus pandemic.
Scheer was added as a signatory to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s open letter which condemns the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
So far no other Canadian party leader has signed the document. However, several Canadian MPs and politicians have already added their names.
Among those who have signed on are Conservative Party leadership candidates Peter MacKay, Erin O’Toole and Derek Sloan. Conservative MPs James Bezan and John Williamson have also added their names to the list.
The document calls the CCP’s early response to the viral coronavirus outbreak “China’s Chernobyl moment” and calls on a “critical evaluation” of the party.
“The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organisation first downplayed the pandemic,” writes the letter.
“Taiwanese health officials also allege that they ignored their alerts of human-to-human transmission in late December. Under pressure from the CCP, democratic Taiwan—which has coped with the pandemic in exemplary fashion—is excluded from the WHO.”
Scheer has been vocal in criticizing the WHO’s relationship with the Chinese government and has called into doubt China’s coronavirus data.
“I’m disappointed that World Health Organization officials have declined the invitation from the House of Commons health committee to testify,” said Scheer.
“We have very serious concerns. Many concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the World Health Organization’s data, the influence that China has on the World Health Organization.”
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A new report shows US officials have “high confidence” coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan lab. Why are Canadians journalists unwilling to report on this?
Plus, Trudeau announces new measures to support small business owners. Will it be enough to help struggling Canadians?
And a day after CBC’s Rosie Barton says the CBC holds the government to account, the CBC reports on “warm feelings” for Trudeau and spreads more misinformation.
True North’s Candice Malcolm and Andrew Lawton discuss the latest about the coronavirus pandemic in Canada.
Sources within the US government say there is “increasing confidence” that the novel coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory and not the wet market as China originally claimed, according to a Fox News report.
According to the story, sources familiar with the briefings on China’s early response to deal with the pandemic say “patient zero” was likely at a laboratory working on handling and combating viruses.
While the case is not definitive, investigators are looking into the matter closely.
One source characterized the Chinese government’s response as the “costliest government cover-up of all time.”
President Donald Trump addressed the theory that the virus originated in a lab on Wednesday by saying that the US government is conducting a “thorough examination” on the virus.
“More and more we’re hearing the story…we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation,” said Trump.
US Senator Tom Cotton and True North founder Candice Malcolm were among the several people attacked for questioning the Chinese government’s claim that the virus originated in a wet market.
In January, freelance writer Justin Ling accused Malcolm of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories for simply asking if the virus could have been a leak from a Chinese lab.
Since then, major outlets like the Washington Post have backpedalled on their earlier narratives and are now saying “scientists don’t rule out that an accident at a research laboratory in Wuhan” could be the source of the deadly disease.
Even officials within the UK government are taking the theory that the virus came out of a laboratory in the area seriously.
Wuhan is the home of not one but two laboratories that test viruses. Both the Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control were conducting experiments in the region leading up to the outbreak.
“There is a credible alternative view [to the wet market theory] based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted,” a source from the UK’s emergency committee of senior officials told the Daily Mail.
Since the very beginning of the global pandemic, the Chinese government has lied to the world about the nature of the coronavirus.
On January 14, the World Health Organization parrotted false claims by the communist party that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission for the coronavirus.
Prior to misinforming the world about how the virus spreads and putting many lives at risk, the Chinese government knew that it was spreading among people as early as November.
According to a research study by the University of Southampton, China could have prevented 95% of the infections in the country if it had told the truth and acted three weeks sooner.