Canada’s foreign minister rips ex-ambassador to China for ‘advising’ Beijing on election
- Chrystia Freeland says it was ‘highly inappropriate’ for John McCallum to tell China that its policies would benefit hardliners in upcoming Canadian election
- McCallum was asked to resign over his comments about Canada’s detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou
Canada’s foreign minister has lambasted the sacked ambassador to China for “advising” Chinese officials on the upcoming Canadian election, in response to details that emerged in an interview with the South China Morning Post earlier this week.
Speaking to the media in London, Chrystia Freeland called it “highly inappropriate” for John McCallum to have told the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs that continuing current Chinese policies would benefit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hardline rivals in the upcoming federal election.
Freeland reiterated that McCallum’s remarks did not reflect the view of the Canadian government, which asked McCallum to resign in January over his comments about Canada’s detention of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies.
“I think it is highly inappropriate for any Canadian to be offering advice or opinions to any foreign government on how that government ought or ought not to behave to secure any particular election outcome,” Ottawa’s top diplomat told reporters.
![McCallum said he had warned his former contacts at the Chinese ministry that “anything that is more negative against Canada will help the Conservatives, [who] are much less friendly to China than the current Liberals.” Photo: Reuters](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/07/12/aaaa8d12-a412-11e9-9a3c-98259c87fba2_1320x770_061855.JPG "McCallum said he had warned his former contacts at the Chinese ministry that “anything that is more negative against Canada will help the Conservatives, [who] are much less friendly to China than the current Liberals.” Photo: Reuters")
“Nor should any Canadian be advising any foreign government on which electoral outcome would be bad for that government,” she said.