Is Canada in formal talks with the Chinese on a possible extradition treaty? There seem to be conflicting answers coming out of Ottawa this week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
On Thursday, Trudeau confirmed there were discussions underway, but argued they’d been going on on an “ad-hoc” basis for years.
READ MORE: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang defends use of death penalty as extradition talks continue
Then, on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion seemed to contradict his boss in an interview with The Globe and Mail, saying point-blank: “There is no negotiation. To write like pretending it is, it is wrong. Stop that please.”
In a panel discussion on this weekend’s edition of The West Block, Dion’s parliamentary secretary, MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, attempted to set the record straight.
“To be clear, what we have done is enter into a framework called National Security and Rule of Law,’ Goldsmith-Jones told host Tom Clark.
“It’s a way to have conversations about counter-terrorism, about security, about rule of law, about consular affairs which is also very important … within the rule-of-law conversation, we have had one discussion about extradition. It’s a far cry from saying this is a negotiation around extradition.”
Goldsmith-Jones then characterized the talks as “very early days of a discussion.”
WATCH: ‘We will not extradite into situations of capital punishment,’ promises Trudeau
Peter Kent, foreign affairs critic for the Conservative Party, was left scratching his head.
“First, we want to know what prompted the sudden flip-flop between August when the immigration minister said Canada would never consider an extradition treaty with China,” Kent said.
“And then we learned that during the prime minister’s visit to China, this high level (National Security and Rule of Law) dialogue was discussed and agreed to, but never announced during the visit.”
Clark pointed out that a possible free-trade deal announced by the Canadian and Chinese leaders this week will have huge economic benefits. In dealing with China, he said, the challenge is always balancing human rights with money.
“There’s no question, we in the official Opposition believe in dialogue,” Kent replied.
“We never went down the road of pandering to Chinese demands for an extradition treaty or playing them, which is possibly what the Liberal government is doing now, pretending to go through the motions to negotiate these issues.”
As for cyber-security talks, Kent added, that’s “like welcoming the fox into the henhouse” given the number of times that Canadian government departments have been hacked from China.
Watch the full panel discussion above.
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