The News Rundown

Carney avoids describing China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide

Over the past several weeks, we have seen Mark Carney's Liberal government get closer and closer to China, as Canada looks to improve economic ties to the country. Whether or not this is a good thing for Canada is up for you to decide, but it's clear that dealing with Asia's biggest economy is not something for free, and that there's a heavy price to pay: ignoring China's human rights abuses and past foreign interference attempts in our previous elections.
It started with Michael Ma, the former Conservative MP, who crossed the floor to the government in December. Ma aggressively quizzed China expert Margaret McCuaig-Johnston on her testimony at the House of Commons industry committee last week, demanding to know if she had actually witnessed forced labour herself.
The committee was examining the electric-vehicle deal and in her presentation McCuaig-Johnston talked about evidence that aluminum made with forced labour by Uyghurs was shipped to car manufacturers in southern China.
Ma said he wanted short, yes or no answers from her and asked first if she had an “advanced degree in technology or cyber security.” Then he questioned whether the China Strategic Risks Institute she advises “specifically looks for risks when there isn’t one.” Finally he asked about her comments on forced labour. “Have you witnessed this yourself, have you been to China?” Ma asked. “Have you witnessed forced labour in Shenzhen?”
His comments defending China and questioning the existence of forced labour in China have been quickly picked up by state-controlled media there, with a print article reporting positively on Michael Ma’s remarks and calling accusations of labour abuse a Western fabrication.
Ma later apologized, but the denials have not stopped the media in China from going to town on the bizarre story involving a member of Canada’s governing party appearing to echo Beijing’s own narrative about the issue.
At a press conference Monday, Carney said he would keep Ma in his caucus, but believes there’s evidence of such labour practices in China and “around the world.” Canadian companies with overseas partners must be careful to abide by laws against forced or child labour and “there are parts of China that are higher risk and therefore (there) needs to be diligence.”
McCuaig-Johnston said that Chinese articles praising Ma and criticizing her, with one calling her a “political clown” were not unique. She also saw social media posts from China, some of which drew thousands of comments, that highlighted Ma’s tense exchange with her.
She said: “He looks like a hero, because he took me on as a critic of the motherland. He is supporting the motherland and that makes him look very good and makes me look terrible … I think he thought it would be well-received by the Chinese embassy, which it was.”
That said, McCuaig-Johnston said she does not believe the MP acted at the direction of Beijing or the Chinese embassy, as some critics have alleged without evidence. He probably thought that he was supporting the “strategic partnership” Carney struck with China recently, with Canada agreeing to allow imports of a limited number of electric vehicles and China lifting its effective ban on Canadian canola. Ma was part of the government delegation to Beijing.
Ma’s behaviour at the committee hearing concerned Gloria Fung of the group Canada Hong Kong Link, a staunch critic of the Chinese government.
“By questioning the fact that forced labour exists in China, Ma reinforces Beijing’s narrative,” she said. “I am concerned that Ma’s fundraising dinner is an attempt to increase his influence in the Liberal party. This is a dangerous time when China with its wolf-warrior diplomacy is taking advantage of the rupture in the global democratic alliance caused by Donald Trump.”
Soon after, Ma was co-hosting a fundraising dinner with Prime Minister Mark Carney Monday evening. Protesters planned to rally outside the venue and call for him to be ejected from the Liberal caucus. Carney was slated to speak Monday night at the fundraising event at Markham’s Angus Glen golf course, co-hosted by Ma, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, all Toronto-area MPs.
Carney's response to Ma was also lukewarm. He said: "Canada has the most rigorous set of engagements on the issue," and that "Mr. Ma has apologized for his comments, as he should have. He's recognized the seriousness of the issue in that apology."
Still, Carney would not say when asked whether China’s treatment of the Uyghurs amounted to genocide – as the House of Commons declared several years ago – but acknowledged the Asian country was “rightly called out” for its conduct toward this minority in the past.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Quebec, Mr. Carney was asked whether he agreed with the 2021 House of Commons motion on genocide.
He declined to say but noted “there are fundamental issues in terms of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in the past, and they’ve been rightly called out.”
Despite the robust defence, the government's own website acknowledges "there is a risk that goods entering the Canadian market through global supply chains were produced using forced labour or child labour."
When asked to clarify if he believes there is forced labour in China, Carney said "there are parts of China that are higher risk" and therefore require due diligence.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne was joined by several business interests, including Prime Minister Mark Carney’s former company, Brookfield Asset Management, while meeting with top Chinese officials in Beijing on Friday, where Champagne met with China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng in high-level talks.
Conservatives have highlighted since before the last federal election that Prime Minister Mark Carney holds financial interests in Brookfield’s success. The company holds investments in the People’s Republic of China and has indicated it aims to increase investments in the world’s second-largest economy.
Champagne pointed to the creation of the Office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), set up under the Trudeau government to crack down on abuses by Canadian corporations abroad, including use of forced labour. The top position has been vacant for months, raising questions about the government's commitment to the office.
These milquetoast responses and promises to bring up the forced labour issues in private with China are alarming because they were consistent with what Carney himself said Xi personally warned him not to do on the sidelines of the APEC summit last year, which was: “Don’t lecture me in public.”
So much for Carney’s famous Davos speech where he proclaimed that “middle powers” such as Canada, “have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.”
Not when the Liberals fold like a cheap suit under questioning about whether Canada believes China uses forced labour, extracted from its minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang, to build aluminum components for electric vehicles.
There are those that believe that what is good for China is good for Canada, but as longtime listeners know, there's a fine balance with dealing with China and that includes all the baggage that comes along with it.
Supplementals:

Removing politics and ideology from schools should not be controversial but it is in Alberta. The UCP introduced Bill 25, An Act to Remove Politics and Ideology from Classrooms and Amend the Education Act, will also bar the display of any flags inside or outside schools, other than the flags of Alberta and Canada, with some exemptions to be revealed later.
When questioned as to why the government feels the legislation is needed, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said, “I firmly believe that it's a professional responsibility of teachers to ensure that they are neutral and impartial in their own personal views.”
The legislation will ensure that on a topic of historic or political significance teachers must ensure “both sides of the debate are accurately represented.”
The goal is to have students formulate their own opinions.
“Critics” as cited by CBC News the government is out of touch with what schools need to use to help students thrive. A University of Alberta education policy studies professor called the Bill authoritarian because it bans ideology.
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling wanted more consultation because he believed that the Bill could have direct and indirect ramifications that are both positive and negative.
When discussing what the Bill aims to prevent, Nicolaides pointed to a January video where a student recorded a teacher at a Fort Saskatchewan school making disparaging remarks about conservatives.
The Education Act would also be updated to bar school divisions or employees from making statements on “political, social, or ideological matters outside the school division’s purview.”
Political and ideological symbols would be banned. That means that schools would only be able to show Alberta and Canadian flags.
Schools would also have to play the Canadian national anthem at least once a week.
It’s also important to note that the legislation will still allow for the existence of gay-straight alliance clubs in schools.
Glynnis Lieb, executive director of the University of Alberta's Fyrefly Institute for Sexual and Gender Diversity, said limiting the flags schools can display and demanding students listen to the national anthem is limiting perspectives from diverse cultures and potentially excluding Indigenous voices.
NDP education critic Amanda Chapman said the legislation is out of touch with what's happening in schools. She said there is no evidence of a widespread problem of teachers limiting the perspectives or opinions presented to students for discussion.
Throughout the process of this no one has questioned just what the conditions are like in classrooms.
Personally I was last in a school last fall to vote in the Alberta municipal elections. Just walking through the hallways and observing what was on display and the classrooms themselves showed that ideology, equity, and inclusion were in the forefront.
This included references to pride based materials, a cross-section of world culture, and an impressive amount of materials relating to indigenous reconciliation.
While these topics on their own are not bad, the lens through which they may be taught raises many important questions. That and the video that the Education Minister cited shows why the province wants to go down this path.
The media did not approach the story from this angle nor the ramifications it can bring.
Many people question why this legislation is needed but with teachers being a provincially regulated entity the government is within their right to set the guidelines for education.
If the unions, teachers, parents, or advocates do not want this they can consider other options. Other options that may include a path where money follows the student, parents are presented with vouchers, and teachers are free to abstain from being part of a union.
The media’s reporting on this story presents a case that this legislation is not needed or they do not know why it’s needed. But at the end of the day there has been almost zero conversation about the current state of schooling. That itself should raise alarm bells.

Canucks’ decision to revoke credential of reporter alarms colleagues

This week's BC story surprisingly surrounds the ownership of the Vancouver Canucks, who have secured last place in the league this past week, with the best odds of picking first overall in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. What should be a moment of excitement for the rebuilding team that has been categorically awful this year, has been overshadowed by increasing season ticket prices, and also a revocation of a reporter's press credentials that has many in BC's media worried about their ability to cover the province's biggest sports team.
The Vancouver Canucks have ignited a debate over the team’s control of media coverage after they removed a beat reporter from Rogers Arena and revoked his press pass during a game last week over a story he had written about a U.S.-based company owned by the team’s ownership group.
Trevor Beggs, who covers the Canucks for Daily Hive, was escorted from the arena during the first intermission of the team’s Thursday game, about three hours after the site published a story he had written about a Washington State vineyard owned by the Aquilini family, prominent Vancouver residents who own the Canucks.
The move alarmed journalists who cover the team, which some say has become more controlling as its on-ice performance has spiralled over the past two years.
Patrick Johnston, the Vancouver Sun and Province columnist who is also chair of the Vancouver chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association said: “This is an unprecedented act. As a principle, I don’t think reporters who are behaving in a responsible manner should be immediately expelled from the building just because you don’t like a story.”
Beggs said on Friday’s episode of Locked On Canucks podcast, which he co-hosts: “I think I might be the only reporter who’s been kicked out mid-game before. I’ve got to apologize to the fans of Locked On Canucks because last night I got my press pass taken away. And I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m getting it back. We’ll see how it goes.”
The Daily Hive story leaned on reporting by Inlander, an independent news site based in Spokane, Wa., about Harvest Plus, a company that supplies migrant labour for farms, which was indicted last month with forging federal contracts that enticed Mexican workers to the state with false promises of good wages and working conditions.
Harvest Plus supplied Aquilini Vineyards, in Benton City, Wa., with workers in 2022, who laboured in unsafe conditions and were threatened by Harvest Plus managers, according to an indictment.
“Aquilini Vineyards was not charged in the indictment, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on whether Aquilini Vineyards faced investigation for its role in the alleged criminal abuse of migrant workers,” the story notes.
Aquilini Vineyards, the grape-growing operation in Washington state founded by the family which also owns the Vancouver Canucks, is distancing itself from an immigration case brought against one of their contractors by the U.S. government.
In an indictment dated Feb. 11, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Washington accused a local firm called Harvest Plus of forging information on visa applications for Mexican labourers who they brought to Washington and Oregon.
Foreign farm workers are eligible to enter the United States with H-2A visas; those visas must list farms where they will be working and those farms must be approved by the American government.
Although the indictment says the workers were used at several locations, the only location explicitly listed in the indictment is Aquilini Vineyards in Benton City, Wash. the grape-growing operation founded by the family which also owns the Vancouver Canucks. According to the indictment, the Harvest Plus workers were at the Aquilini property in 2022. The company is distancing itself from the immigration case.
Daily Hive’s version of the story prominently played up Aquilini Vineyard’s connection to the Canucks, including the use of a photograph of Francesco Aquilini, the chair of the Canucks.
The site took down the article some time after Mr. Beggs was escorted from Rogers Arena. It did not publish an explanation of the decision to remove the piece or any acknowledgement that it had been removed.
In a statement e-mailed to The Globe and Mail on Monday afternoon by Victoria Ullrich, the director of communications for Canucks Sports and Entertainment, the team said the article “contains statements that are inaccurate, misleading and cause reputational and commercial harm. The strategic use of language and framing of the article are sensational and take flippant liberties, particularly with the inclusion of the Vancouver Canucks in the headline and in the photograph. It is unquestionably defamatory to accuse an individual by implication or insinuation of committing a criminal act. We view this matter as a marked departure from journalistic principles of fairness, honesty, objectivity and integrity, and we remain committed to supporting accurate and responsible coverage.”
Stephen Whyno, an Associated Press sports reporter who serves as president of the PHWA, said the incident highlighted the latitude that individual teams have over which members of the media they grant access to.
“It’s troublesome, because of the precedent that it could set if teams decide that they’re the arbiters of what is fair journalism. I hope it is not a trend.”
Johnston agrees, and said: “Being pulled from the building is [as] big as it gets. And it’s now drawn attention to a story that wasn’t drawing much attention before,” Johnston wrote. “This is what’s known as the Streisand effect. Daily Hive’s Trevor Beggs was removed from the rink on Thursday. He believes it’s because of how he framed a story. Rather than asking him to retract or rework the story and suggesting that a failure to do so would lead to him being barred from the building, the Canucks jumped to the conclusion. That is their right. We all understand it. But now people are talking about it. For the first time in modern memory, the Canucks have put a reporter on the pavement while a game was being played.”
Regardless, the media have been put on notice that coverage of the Canucks has to be positive, lest they raise the ire of the ownership group. And we all know, if reporters can't report on the news in a fair and balanced manner, we get a captured mainstream media that only tells one side of the story. While this may just be about BC sports, it's important to see how this story can be replicated by the larger media apparatus in Canada.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Who is Avi Lewis, the new leader of the NDP?

Last weekend the federal NDP chose Avi Lewis to lead the party. Lewis won with 56% support on the first ballot.
Lewis himself lists his occupation as documentary filmmaker. His grandfather David Lewis led the NDP from 1971 to 1975. His dad Stephen Lewis led the Ontario NDP from 1970 to 1978.
We will talk momentarily about the policies that Lewis ran on. But first we should look at the NDP convention itself.
The convention drew a massive crowd evident in the 57,000+ votes that were cast in the leadership race.
At the convention the NDP instituted an “equity card” system.
The equity cards were a physical card that was colour coded given to people in one of five “equity-seeking groups” as the NDP puts it.
These groups are indigenous, visible minorities, disabled, LGBTQ+, and women.
If you are a member of one of these groups you were given a card, the cards were said to have equal ranking and weighting. This itself proved controversial with some who wanted a different weighting. Video shown online showed delegates of multiple “intersectionalities” being concerned that they were not able to speak ahead of a cis gendered woman who would have also been given a card.
The cis gendered woman then raised a point of privilege that they were moved behind someone else with a different equity card.
The cards were used to allow people with an equity card to jump the queue and speak to measures at the convention before those without an equity card.
The NDP seems to have also voted on measures at the convention to expand rather than abolish the equity card system despite the confusion.
This raises questions about how the NDP would see individuals in Canada should they ever form government under Avi Lewis.
Lewis as many people in politics do comes from a history of advocacy. One of the biggest advocacy stances was when he, Naomi Klein, and others published the Leap Manifesto.
This manifesto proposed changes to Canadian society and economics centred around climate change and was popular at the height of the social green movement from 2015 to the early 2020s.
A leap manifesto implemented would ban all infrastructure projects relating to fossil fuels including natural gas, end subsidies, transition all of Canada to renewable energy within 20 years, and emphasize a “just transition” for those employed in carbon intensive sectors.
Lewis supported this. He also supported the idea of a public grocer. That is a grocery store run by the government. This doesn’t work and has even been said so by former communists.
In 1989 Boris Yeltsin who became the first President of modern Russia visited the United States and made a famous trip to a grocery store in Houston where he was amazed with the food choices available. It was later said by American media that this trip caused him to say “the last vestiges of Bolshevism collapsed inside” him.
In general there has not been much conversation of what a public grocer is. Many people have the idea that it’s similar to a co-op, a store chain that is owned by members that buy membership yearly. Then from that they make decisions and the store operates on a not for profit basis. The other option is a government run warehouse based system which Lewis has advocated for.
Lewis has also called for an inheritance tax and wealth tax that his platform says would bring in $40b a year in revenue. We do not know at this point what the percentages would be but we saw what capital flight was just getting underway with a modest increase to the capital gains tax.
He also wants to end all fossil fuel subsidies and “transition fossil fuel workers”. This is a policy straight out of the leap manifesto and combined with his next policy would completely kill Canada’s energy industry.
That next policy is ending approval for federal pipelines and natural gas projects. This includes of course natural gas which is widely supported in BC even by the Eby government.
Lewis is also calling for rent caps across Canadian cities.
The policies on tap here caused some to take a step back including Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi.
Nenshi said, “It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta. Last year, Alberta’s New Democrats voted overwhelmingly to make membership in the federal party optional. Many thousands of our provincial members, including myself, are not members of the federal party. We are a big tent and welcome the support of people who vote for every federal party.”
Nenshi ended by saying his focus is not on what the federal NDP says or does.
Premier Danielle Smith was more blunt and called Lewis a “self described eco-socialist.” She also said, “while Naheed Nenshi may try to distance himself, the Alberta NDP’s own constitution makes clear they are tied to the federal party. The truth is, the Alberta NDP has a long track record of opposing pipelines and energy development. Their extreme views are a danger to jobs and affordability.”
She then cited the regulation in the NDP constitution for the Alberta NDP that says that the party is a section of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
For a long time people have tried to downplay this but it is in a constitution that Nenshi did not have his membership change and many downplay how important this is to the operation of both parties.
Saskatchewan NDP opposition leader Carla Beck went even further and refused to meet with Lewis until he publicly reverses his opinion on matters related to natural resources.
David Eby sounded more conciliatory than Nenshi and Beck saying that “we will work with anyone and any federal leader who shares our priorities” after congratulating Lewis.
Eby and Lewis also go back in history to the 2022 BC NDP leadership race where Lewis backed climate activist Anjali Appadurai’s challenge to Eby for that race.
Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew said, “I just love Avi. He's just a great person. And we don't have to agree on everything in order to do the big things together. The big things are health care, education. Yeah, we can have debates — heated debates — about any manner of other issues, but the values are there."
While there were those that spoke outright like Nenshi and Beck, those who spoke more softly like Kinew and Eby are warmer to the idea of a Lewis led NDP.
The biggest shock to all this though was the antisemitic problem that the NDP has. There were numerous supporters of Lewis at the victory speech wearing keffiyehs and one supporter was waving a massive palestinian flag.
Lewis describes his family’s history of anti-Zionist views but the anti-Zionist views of Poland in 1897 are different from that of 2026 where today anti-Zionism largely represents a disregard for Israel’s right to exist.
The new NDP president, Niall Ricardo, greeted last fall’s ceasefire in Gaza, which included a plan to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capability, by posting: “The only entity that needs deradicalization and disarmament is the one committing genocide: Israel. Zionism is the sin, genocide is the crime.”
Lewis is an NDP leader. Will he move the NDP to the centre and challenge for government? No. Will he win back some of the radicals that the Liberals attracted on the left under Trudeau? Yes.
The NDP of today is far different than the NDP of 2015 or 2011 and even more so than the mainstream NDP of Western Canada.
This seismic split and the radical policies it brings was largely ignored by the media this week.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“He looks like a hero, because he took me on as a critic of the motherland. He is supporting the motherland and that makes him look very good and makes me look terrible … I think he thought it would be well-received by the Chinese embassy, which it was.” - Margaret McCuaig-Johnston on being grilled by Liberal MP Michael Ma

Word of the Week

Selective - having the power to intentionally choosing some things and not others

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Show Data

Episode Title: Selective Stories
Teaser: Carney avoids talking about forced labour in China, the Alberta government wants to remove politics from education, and a Vancouver Canucks reporter gets barred from the arena due to an unflattering article. Also, Avi Lewis is elected NDP leader.
Production Code: WC-463-2026-04-04
Recorded Date: April 4, 2026
Release Date: April 5, 2026
Duration: 1:05:01
Edit Notes: Shane sneeze, clean up ending

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX