Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Chinese troops to conduct cold-weather training in Ontario last year — and was upset when it was canceled by Canada’s defense chief, according to reports.
Canadian media outlets the Globe and Mail and Rebel Media this week published excerpts from secret government documents about the exercises, which were supposed to take place in 2019.
The training with China’s People’s Liberation Army was canceled by Chief of Defense Staff Jonathan Vance amid concerns that Beijing could use the trip to glean information from Canada, according to the outlets, which cited the memos.
But Trudeau worried the cancellation would appear to be retaliation over China’s detention of two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, an executive of Chinese electronics and communications giant Huawei.
The memos showed that Trudeau insisted that Chinese officials be let down gently, the Daily Mail reported.
Ezra Levant, founder of conservative website Rebel News, also claimed the PLA was sending spies, not just soldiers, to Canada.
“It is a shock to Canadians. That cold-weather warfare you are referring to is just one of 18 different joint projects the Canadian armed forces had with the People’s Liberation Army in 2019 alone,” Levant told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Thursday night.
“Canada is training one- and two-star Chinese generals in our war colleges, training lieutenants and majors, commanders,” he said.
“We’re sending Canadians over to China, we’re bringing Chinese — I think they are not just soldiers, I think they’re spies, as well — to Canada, and I don’t know a single person in this country knew about it,” Levant added on Fox News.
The documents also reveal that the US issued warnings to Canada about the risks of holding military exercises with China, Levant said, but they were ignored.
“In these memos, you can see the Trump administration warned Canada that this winter warfare training would transfer knowledge to China that could be used,” he told Carlson.
“And when the military, the Canadian military, said our American allies, or our allies are concerned about this, Trudeau staff pushed back and said, ‘Is this just the Trump administration, or is anyone else worried about it?’” Levant added.