Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet called on March 1 for an independent public inquiry into Beijing foreign interference and said it’s outlandish to equate concerns about the issue with racism.
Blanchet said he found the reasoning of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on racism to be “ridiculous” and noted the government has the duty to protect citizens of Chinese origins who are targeted by Beijing.
“There is a sort of reflex, under any circumstance, to use the word ‘racism’—it’s as though the word ‘racism’ is the glutamate of politics. If it doesn’t taste anything, we’ll say the word ‘racism,’” he said in French during a scrum in Ottawa….