Canada's ambassador to China forced to resign for telling the truth

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired his ambassador to China, John McCallum, after McCallum ignored a warning from the prime minister and repeated the mistake of talking publicly about the government’s view of the Meng Wanzhou case and how it hoped to resolve the plight of two Canadians detained in China.

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That was after StarMetro published an interview with McCallum in Vancouver in which he said that it would be “great for Canada” if the United States relinquishes its attempt to extradite Huawei’s chief financial officer.

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Government officials had initially suggested McCallum was more “forthright” than expected in his comments outlining the view that Meng had “strong” legal arguments to fight extradition

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“It’s an unfortunate moment for this to happen because we need all hands on deck,” said Saint-Jacques. He said Trudeau needs to quickly find someone senior, knowledgeable and who has the ear of the prime minister to step in.

McCallum fit that bill in 2017. But Saint-Jacques said McCallum’s resignation now “won’t simplify things” in the relationship which has been strained after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

That arrest was at the request of the U.S. which wants to try her on charges of fraud connected with allegations of trying to mislead banks over Huawei’s ties to a company doing business in Iran — in violation of U.S. sanctions.

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However, Fen Hampson, a professor at Carleton University and director of global security and politics at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said Trudeau had no choice but to dump McCallum to distance the envoy’s comments from the government’s official line. “It doesn’t solve the problem, but it sends the Chinese a clear message that when McCallum was speaking, he wasn’t speaking for the government. The only way the government could put any distance between themselves and McCallum’s remarks was to fire him,” Hampson said in an interview Saturday.

  The Star

Ambassador John McCallum says it would be ‘great for Canada’ if U.S. drops extradition request for Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou.

John McCallum’s ‘gaffe’ was telling the truth about China and Huawei.

Canada’s ambassador to China backs Meng’s chances of fighting extradition to the U.S.