Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked Taiwan for donating medical masks to the country on Friday (May 9), a day after his foreign minister twice avoided mentioning the island nation's name during a virtual meeting of Canada's House of Commons.
In a Thursday meeting, Conservative MP Ed Fast pointed out that Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne had sent a tweet on March 28 publicly thanking China for donating protective equipment to Canada, just three hours after Beijing made the announcement. Fast noted that much of this equipment was later found to be defective and could not be used.
When grilled by Fast for a word on Taiwan for its donation of masks, Champagne only responded, "We are grateful to every nation for helping Canada." When pressed, he continued to dodge mentioning Taiwan.
In a media briefing on Friday, when asked by a Canadian journalist about Champagne intentionally dropping Taiwan from his thank you list after the donation of 500,000 masks to Canada's frontline medical workers, Trudeau said without hesitation, “I’m happy to thank Taiwan for its generous donation.”
Another question cited former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's memoir and his suggestion the world should stand up to China's bullying of Taiwan. Asked how Canada would react, Trudeau did not directly answer but instead said the country will ensure that all its people get the needed supplies to make it through the pandemic, according to a Canadian media report.
Source：Taiwan News
