MPs are going to question Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland about her interactions with a Beijing bank that has been linked to the Chinese Communist Party.Five months ago, Freeland had pledged to halt cooperation with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.MPs, by unanimous vote, passed a motion sponsored by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, AB) asking that the Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations examine “Canada’s freeze in government-lead activity with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and that the committee invite the minister of finance to appear.” Bank whistleblower Bob Pickard also faces questions.Pickard, a Toronto publicist working as Bank communications chief, abruptly resigned last June after calling the Bank a Communist-infiltrated “cesspool” whose directors were “useful idiots” for the Party. “As a patriotic Canadian, this was my only course,” said Pickard. “The Bank is dominated by Communist Party members.”“Communist Party hacks hold the cards at the Bank,” said Pickard. “They deal with some board members as useful idiots. I believe my government should not be a member of this People’s Republic of China instrument. The reality of power is that it’s Chinese Communist Party from start to finish.”“Western publics are not being served by their membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” wrote Pickard. “I saw with my own eyes the extent to which Communist Party hacks occupy key positions in the Bank like in-house KGB or Gestapo or Stasi.”Pickard’s resignation prompted Freeland to announce on June 14 that the cabinet would “immediately halt all government led-activity” at the Chinese bank. “I have instructed the department of finance to lead an immediate review of the allegations raised and of Canada’s involvement in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” Freeland told reporters at the time.No Canadian shares were withdrawn and the department of finance never issued a follow-up report.On November 22, 2022, Michael Sabia, the deputy finance minister at the time, testified during a Commons Public Accounts committee hearing that the Bank was considered legitimate.“It is not a Chinese-controlled investment bank,” Sabia said.In 2017, Parliament passed the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Agreement Act, which allowed the department of finance to purchase up to US$375 million worth of shares in the bank.“Thousands upon thousands of Canadian jobs are reliant on our current trading relationship with China,” then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau said at the time.Since 2020, the Conservative Party has been calling on Parliament to sell its shares.“Where is our money?” Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre asked in the Commons on June 14. “How will we get it back?”
