Probably not…
Justin Trudeau had asked Donald Trump to bring up the case Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the Canadians kidnapped by Communist China.
Trudeau was reduced to asking Trump, since China hasn’t been returning his calls, and hasn’t returned Chrystia Freeland’s calls either.
Trudeau’s weakened (AKA non-existent) negotiating position is in large part due to his refusal to retaliate against China’s repeated aggression towards Canada, which has sent a message of weakness and made it clear that Canada can be insulted, humiliated, and challenged without consequence.
With no formal meeting, Trudeau only had a short sideline convo with Xi at the G20, with nothing of substance emerging.
That meant any in-depth discussion would be left to Trump.
Yet, it seems that may not have happened.
Neither the Canadian nor American governments are saying whether Trump brought it up.
When Trudeau was asked, he said “We are confident that the President also brought that up, but you’ll have to ask him for details.”
However, according to the Globe & Mail, “One White House official said the administration would not be commenting on Mr. Trump’s discussions with Mr. Xi. Another White House source told The Globe and Mail to put its questions to the Canadian government. The source would not say why he believed Canada would have more information on the President’s conversations than Mr. Trump’s own staff. The officials spoke to The Globe on condition of anonymity.”
So, Canada says to ask the US.
The US says to ask Canada.
Hmm…
It seems likely that Trump didn’t bring it up, since it would be easy for the US to say he did.
Of course, this once again shows why Canada must be stronger as a nation, and not be as reliant on others.
We need to retaliate (banning Huawei would be a good start), in order to be respected again. Until that happens, we will continue to get pushed around and be seen as a joke by ruthless governments like Communist China.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube