Saturday, January 26, 2019 ~ NATIONAL.
After saying he ‘misspoke’ on January 24 about how Canada might beneficially act regarding Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou being detained in Canada, the next day John McCallum, Canada’s Ambassador to China, told Vancouver media it would be “great for Canada” if the United States were to drop an extradition request against the detainee.
Now John McCallum has resigned. This comes at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Earlier this week, Trudeau had said that McCallum’s resignation would not see two Canadians who (it is widely presumed have been politically detained in China in response to the Huawei situation) released “a day sooner”. Then last night Trudeau asked McCallum for his resignation, and today January 26 issued this statement:
“Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum’s resignation as Canada’s Ambassador to China. For almost two decades, John McCallum has served Canadians honourably and with distinction. He held many positions in Cabinet over the years, including Minister of National Defence, Minister of Veterans Affairs and, most recently, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. His work as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in bringing in over 39,500 Syrian refugees remains an inspiration to Canadians and an example to the world. I thank him and his family for his service over the past many years. Effective immediately and in keeping with standard practice, Jim Nickel, the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Canada in Beijing, will represent Canada in China as Chargé d’affaires.”
It has been seen that the USA’s request to Canada to detain Meng Wanzhou in the first place is where all the trouble started. Canada had seized the Chinese business executive wanted by the USA over allegations of deceptive banking practices and breaking sanctions on Iran. China had confirmed on December 10, 2018 that two Canadian citizens had been detained.
On Thursday, McCallum had discussed Meng Wanzhou’s case with a group of Chinese-language journalists in Toronto (a meeting to which no Ottawa media were invited). He listed several arguments he thought could help her with her legal fight against extradition.
On Thursday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had already called for McCallum’s resignation for politicizing the Meng Wanzhou case. Now on Saturday, Scheer further says (in a Tweet): “It should never have come to this. Justin Trudeau should have fired his ambassador the moment he interfered in this case. Instead, he did nothing and allowed more damage to be done. More weakness and more indecision from Trudeau on China.”
While in China, in recent weeks McCallum had visited with two detained Canadians in the wake of the Meng Wanzhou incident, and reported that the two men — Michael Kovrig (of Toronto; a diplomat on hiatus working for an international think-tank) and Michael Spavor (of Calgary but China-based; an entrepreneur and business consultant dealing with North Korea).
McCallum reported that the two Canadian men were not allowed legal representation by the Chinese, and were being kept under lit conditions 24/7 as well as being interrogated up to four hours per day. McCallum said earlier this week that his top priority would be to revisit Kovrig and Spavor upon returning to China.
McCallum is married to Nancy Lim of Chinese descent; they have three sons. They moved to Beijing, China in 2017 when McCallum (who had to that point been the MP for Markham-Unionville and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship) was appointed by Trudeau as Canada’s Ambassador to China, saying at the time that reconnection with her family was part of the appeal of taking the new post.
It could be seen that this resignation allows McCallum safe return back to Canada during times of unrest between Canada and China. On January 14, 2019 the Government of Canada had upgraded its travel advisory for Canadians visiting China to the level of “Exercise a high degree of caution”. Many other countries are given that level of warning by Canada, including Russian, Iran, Thailand (regional), and Mexico (regional). For Venezuela with its recent political coup, the warning is higher at “avoid non-essential travel”.
McCallum’s views on China were likely seen as more in line with Trudeau’s pro-China economic policies, compared to former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney (ambassador 2009-2012) under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Guy Saint-Jacques was ambassador from 2012 to October 9, 2016. Both Mulroney and Saint-Jacques had served as diplomats to China prior to being appointed ambassador.
McCallum has served Canada in public office for almost 20 years. He was MP for Markham-Unionville from November 2000 to October 2015, serving as immigration critic (2006-2015) during the time of Stephen Harper’s government. Then he ran and won in Markham-Thornhill in the October 19, 2015 election.
McCallum resided in Oakville, Ontario while he was MP and in Beijing as Canadian ambassador to China. McCallum and his wife will likely now permanently return to Canada.
By most accounts, McCallum was seen to have done a good job as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship between November 4, 2015 and January 10, 2017 to help further the Liberal campaign promise of bringing thousands of Syrian refugees to Canada.
McCallum had also been the Minister of National Revenue under Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin (July 2004 to February 2006) and before that Minister of Veterans Affairs (Dec 2003 to July 2004). Under Prime Minister Jean Chretien, McCallum had served as Minister of National Defence (May 2002 to Dec 2003).