Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much. Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. I will be giving my presentation in English, but I would obviously be pleased to answer any questions in French. I commend the committee for its e

Canada-China Relations committee  I think I've done some useful things in my career, such as in the case of Syrian refugees, as defence minister under Chrétien when we said no to Iraq, and concerning Nelson Mandela's citizenship, but I've never claimed to have led an error-free career. I have made a number of e

Canada-China Relations committee  I don't really know what they do. They don't confide in me. I have said to you that I thought that was a misstatement. It was something I should not have said; it could have been subject to misinterpretation. It had no effect, in the sense that my sole objective was to build a

Canada-China Relations committee  You're probably referring to a press conference I gave in Markham, where I tried to describe the overall situation. I began by saying that we believed the two Michaels had been arbitrarily detained and that we were working with other countries to try to get them released as quick

Canada-China Relations committee  The comment about the election was, I think, inappropriate. The overall comments about the situation with regard to detainees and Meng Wanzhou in Markham I thought were okay.

Canada-China Relations committee  I assume you are implying that I might be one of those elites, but I assure you that—

Canada-China Relations committee  Okay. Certainly I think that sometimes Chinese people come to Canada for inappropriate purposes, and that is why we turned down a number of visas. We felt they were likely to be doing inappropriate things in Canada of various kinds, as you describe. I think there is this idea o

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you very much for your question, and I'm delighted to see some familiar faces again. I think China is always a two-track issue. As I described in my comments, on the one hand, my job was to try to expand ties with China; on the other hand, it was to express our values on h

Canada-China Relations committee  It's a pleasure to see you as well, Mr. Bergeron. I don't know what the government's new policy is. As Minister Champagne stated, our policy towards China is evolving. When I was the ambassador, the situation wasn't what it is today. That speaks to the need for an evolving polic

Canada-China Relations committee  Are you referring to embassy staff?

Canada-China Relations committee  All right. I see. I always say local staff are vital to our mission in China. They have the expertise we need. We must be careful, yes, but they are essential to the embassy's operations.

Canada-China Relations committee  Are you talking about the talk I gave about immigration?

Canada-China Relations committee  Okay, I—

Canada-China Relations committee  I gave a talk to some of their clients who were thinking about immigrating to Canada, and that became controversial in a Globe and Mail article. It was natural for me to encourage Chinese or other foreigners to immigrate to Canada, because I have for many years thought that immig

Canada-China Relations committee  No. I never met them when I was serving as ambassador.