TORONTO – Premier Kathleen Wynne says she agreed to exclude the media from all three events she has scheduled today with a Communist Party official from China because she was asked to do so.
Wynne says she agreed to close the doors at a meeting with Luo Zhijun, Party Secretary of Jiangsu province, because the Chinese had made a series of requests.
Reporters are also banned when Wynne speaks alongside Luo at the opening of the Industrial Cooperation Forum in Toronto and at a 30th anniversary celebration for the Ontario-Jiangsu Friendship Agreement
Wynne said there would be “largely ceremonial interactions” with Chinese officials at the events and promised she would talk to the media afterwards.
But the premier couldn’t say why she agreed to the requests to ban the media from what would normally be public events in Ontario.
A spokeswoman for Wynne said later that the premier’s office would make efforts to open up at least one of the events planned today to the media.
“These are people from Jiangsu province who are coming to meet with us, and they have a series of requests that they’ve put in, and we will be reciprocating when we go back to China,” Wynne said.
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