My TakeCanada’s thorny dilemma over extradition treaty with China
The government recognises such an arrangement is in the national interest, but the public opinion backlash means it won’t come any time soon
When news broke that Canada and China were quietly negotiating an extradition treaty, the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau braced itself for a terrible public opinion backlash. The revelation meant Premier Li Keqiang’s (李克強) visit to Ottawa last week was completely overshadowed by news coverage of the negotiations.
As Jeremy Paltiel, a professor of political science specialising in Sino-Canadian relations at Carleton University, put it: “[The] coverage of the first official visit of a Chinese government leader in six years has been saturated with negative reporting on an extradition treaty.”
To convey a sense of the journalistic overkill, during Li’s four-day visit, the Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading national daily, led its front page every day with a story about extradition. Elsewhere in the paper there were lengthy stories, editorial leaders and cartoons, and special features throughout the week, almost all of which were negative about an extradition deal.
This explains the seemingly contradictory statements from Trudeau and Foreign Minister Stephane Dion. At the start of Li’s tour, Trudeau admitted there had been negotiations. By the end, Dion denied them. At most, sources from his ministry would say there had been “some talks” in that direction.
