Carney Already Shown Proven Pattern of Saying One Thing Publicly, Another Thing Privately:Journalist

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's dynamics with President Trump on full display at Davos. What does it say about his relationship with the United States versus with the CCP? Joining me now to discuss these developments is Sam Cooper, journalist and founder of the Bureau and author of the book Willful Blindness. Sam Cooper, thank you so much for joining. Glad to be with you. It's great to have you with us, Sam. Mark Carney just saying that he's not going to be seeking a free trade deal with China. That's after he went over there and pretty much said just the opposite, which would ultimately have violated the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, the MCA. At the same time, he's doubling down on his comments at the World Economic Forum. Here's a look. I meant what I said. In Davos, it was clear it was a broader set of issues that Canada was the first country to understand the change in U.S. trade policy that he had initiated, and we're responding to that. We're responding positively by building partnerships abroad. Sam, what do you make of the dynamic and tone between the Canadian Prime Minister Carney and President Trump right now? The first observation is Prime Minister Carney has already shown a proven pattern of saying one thing publicly and another thing privately in the White House. We saw that during the federal election campaign when Prime Minister Carney was very tough in his rhetoric publicly, and it came out in Canada's national broadcaster, and others reported that he had privately told President Trump that this was part of his election campaigning. I think there's a well-established pattern of Mark Carney laundering his rhetoric for the Canadian public, and we can also see the devil will be in the details where he's claiming that he's not pursuing a free trade deal with China, but he's not walking back from his intention to have a number of key trade components, one of them being to allow Chinese electric vehicles, 50,000 to start, into Canada's market, and that has triggered serious warnings already in President Trump's administration. As your viewers know, Chinese electric vehicles are well-established threats for intelligence collection personally and system-wide in North America. They could also, as the trade representative, Mr. Greer, has said, damage the jobs for autoworkers across North America. So that's one component. Another one that Carney has not backed off from is he has promised to have federal police cooperation between Canada's police and Beijing's police. Again, as your viewers I'm sure know, experts believe this would only assist China's transnational repression operations. And so again, I think that Mark Carney is backing and forcing his rhetoric on trade, still trying to get a good deal with Washington, but also, I think critics have rightly pointed out, giving away too much to China, and it's a security concern to Canada's population, and I'm sure a deep concern in Washington as well. Canada always been regarded as our friendly, benign neighbor to the North, especially those who may have grown up in the, you know, along the, say, the Northeast or the northern part of the Midwest, very easy to cross the border, not much changes except perhaps noticing people become even nicer. Between the United States and the CCP, what choice do you think best serves the Canadian people in the long term? Yeah, this is, I would have hoped that that's a no-brainer question, but unfortunately in Canada, I'll track back to the last election, we know that President Trump domestically in the United States can be very tough and aggressive in his negotiations. He wrote a book on it called The Art of the Deal, but during Canada's election, Mark Carney convinced the broad population, especially older voters, that President Trump and Washington wanted to march up, essentially, north of the border and militarily capture Canada. So that's just not going to happen, but Canadians have bought into that rhetoric. In fact, I believe, I've proven in my reporting for the Bureau.News, Chinese propaganda pit pitches what they call the U.S.'s intentions of being an irresponsible international partner, and that aligns very well with Mark Carney's message to the domestic audience. So the short answer to your question is, Canadians, it should be a no-brainer. The United States and Canada are natural allies, have always been the shared common culture. Many of us come from the same origins and believe in the same values. The fact that we share the longest, for now, undefended border in the world should be proof of that question, but I'm just afraid that too many Canadians have what they call sort of Trump derangement syndrome and have come to believe Washington is the bigger threat, and that's just dead wrong. Selfishly, I have to admit, perhaps the greatest threat of all is losing hockey to the CCP. We saw the president, maybe we could pull it up on screen here as we talk about it. Truth doubt about that possibility, hoping that doesn't happen. All jokes aside, Sam, how should Canada approach any potential deal with China, especially given Beijing's history, and how should Canada really assess whether China should or could be trusted? Well, Steve, the message I've been trying to convey from a book I wrote in 2021 to my reporting for the Bureau.news, my reporting at Global News also, is that China has deeply interfered in Canada's elections. China has saturated Canadian institutions from law enforcement to foreign policy to Canada's parliament to all levels of government. And as my work has really broken ground showing that China uses organized crime thugs, its intelligence services, its Ministry of Public Security, task gangsters in diaspora, heavily populated communities around the world, notably in New York City, the same tactics are used, Boston as well. And, you know, not just Canadians, but citizens of the West that believe in democracy and safety for citizens that should be able to vote the way they want to have to know that the Chinese Communist Party is the biggest threat to world peace and the biggest threat, I believe, to public safety in North America. So that means laundering fentanyl money for Mexican cartels. That means tasking gangsters to violently target and potentially harm up to potentially assassinate critics of the Chinese Communist Party in the West. And that's just a terrible thing that all citizens that care about freedom need to know. Sam, lastly, and you just alluded to it and you touched on it in one of your previous comments as well, transnational repression. This is tangible evidence that the CCP is operating and committing crimes on other countries' soil. You mentioned it's happening in Canada. Can you give us some examples of it? The most recent and shocking examples I have confirmed in my reporting are that China has been running so-called CCP police stations in Canadian cities from Toronto to Vancouver to Montreal. We know that Canada's federal police, the RCMP, were publicly announced they were investigating these stations. No charges have come forward. So that's shocking in itself. A Canadian senator who is very pro-Beijing lined up with the runners of one of these alleged stations in Quebec and in their case of suing the RCMP in their efforts. That's stunning. I'll give you one more, what I call the very sharp edge of transnational repression. The CBC, Canada's national broadcaster, along with Australian media and my own research at the Bureau.News have showed that a transnational organized crime group called the Prince Group run by a Fujian mafia set up in Cambodia that's running worldwide scams. These are, you know, Internet scams, human trafficking, human slavery. They employed a Chinese spy who defected to Australia. This person leaked his own sort of text messages to journalists showing that China wanted to kill a dissident based in Canada. This person died in a canoe kayaking accident in Vancouver. It's suspicious. It's not proven that China's criminal and intelligence networks killed that person. But those questions remain open. And that's the deepest concern in Canada right now. Sort of just to highlight your point, Sam, it is well known that Canada is home to many mainland Chinese diaspora communities that house many dissidents in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa, as you mentioned. So the fact that the CCP is setting up police stations and bringing that transnational repression right onto your home soil is extremely concerning. Sam Cooper, really appreciate you sharing your perspective. Thanks, Steve.