Investigation: Ontario Liberal contingent cancelled trip to Taiwan

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Ontario Liberal MPPs abruptly pulled out of an all-party delegation to Taiwan last winter, at a time when the province is forging closer ties with China.

Sources in the Ontario and Taiwanese governments said the visit had been planned for months. Airfare and accommodations, paid for by Taiwan, had already been arranged for seven MPPs, the sources said. The three Liberals scheduled to go – Whip Bob Delaney, and backbenchers Eleanor McMahon and Kathryn McGarry – bowed out roughly two weeks before the trip began March 15.

Three Progressive Conservative MPPs – Michael Harris, Bill Walker and Gila Martow – and New Democrat Jagmeet Singh went ahead with the visit in their absence.

China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, is Ontario's second-largest trading partner, a relationship worth $36.4-billion last year. Queen's Park's efforts to woo Beijing have taken on added urgency since the recession, as Ontario has attempted to lessen its dependence on the American market by cultivating business ties overseas. Kathleen Wynne chose the Middle Kingdom as the destination for her first trade mission as Premier last fall.

The relationship is a delicate dance for all Western governments, as they seek closer economic ties with the totalitarian state without compromising democratic values. It is a relationship Ontario is still navigating: As The Globe and Mail revealed earlier this week, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service raised concerns with provincial officials that cabinet minister Michael Chan might be susceptible to the Chinese government's influence.

But Mr. Delaney, who was supposed to lead the Taiwan delegation, denied that geopolitical concerns had played a part in the cancellation. He said the Liberals had to cancel two or three weeks before the trip because of a "scheduling issue." He said if they had gone ahead, there would not have been enough MPPs remaining at the legislature to get work done.

"When we did the math, we just couldn't make it work," Mr. Delaney said. "We had to do a count of who was going to be in town and who wasn't, and when we looked at it we realized that with the schedule that we just couldn't spare the members."

The legislature was on break the week of the trip, and Hansard records show neither Mr. Delaney nor the other Liberals had committee duties on those days.

Ms. McMahon said she had to cancel to take care of her dog, who had undergone surgery for cancer. "She was having some post-surgery complications and I could not attend," Ms. McMahon said. "I don't know about the other members of the delegation, but that was my reason I couldn't go."

Ms. McGarry did not respond to a request for comment.

Veteran Liberal MPP Monte Kwinter said his party has in the past discouraged legislators from becoming too friendly with Taiwan, out of fear of damanging relations with China. On one occasion a few years ago, he said, an official in the premier's office asked him not to go on a trip to Taiwan with federal MPs to attend a trade show. He said the staffer was afraid the visit would anger Beijing.

"It was suggested that I not go – 'You know what, you shouldn't really be doing that, it's going to alienate the Chinese,'" Mr. Kwinter recalled, adding that he disregarded the request and went anyway. "They said, 'Fine, but we're not supporting it.' I said, 'Well that's ridiculous. It makes no sense. The federal government has a presence at this trade show – why would we not be supporting it when we're going to benefit from it?'"

Mr. Kwinter said he could not remember which staffer had asked him not to go. He said he believed the staffer had intervened on his own initiative and that he had no indication the Peoples' Republic had put any pressure on the Ontario government.

Mr. Kwinter said there was also a general sense in caucus that it was not good to be too close to the Taiwanese government for fear of irritating China. "They have their Taiwanese National Day; I was usually the only person who went to it because the others felt that they would be alienating the Chinese if we supported the Taiwanese," he said.

Mr. Delaney said the Taiwan trip was organized directly by the MPPs and the Taiwanese government, and did not go through the Premier's office. He said he dealt with Ms. Wynne's staff in figuring out whether they had enough MPPs to get work done in Toronto that week.

"It's normal for me to ensure that everybody knows where our members are," he said. Asked if there was any order from the Premier's office not to take the trip, Mr. Delaney replied: "Why would there be? I mean, there never has been in the past ... No. None that anyone told me."

Ms. Wynne's press secretary, Zita Astravas, wrote in an e-mail that "there were a variety of reasons why Liberal MPPs were unable to travel to Taiwan including scheduling conflicts and personal reasons."

Mr. Harris, who led the delegation in Mr. Delaney's absence, said the trip had been in the works since the fall and they picked the week of March 15 because the legislature would be on break. He said he does not know why the Liberals cancelled.

"It was a great experience; I learned the relationship that Taiwan has with Ontario and vice versa, especially when it comes to trade," he said. "It was also an opportunity to spend some time with our colleagues from the other parties. I spent a lot of time with Jagmeet Singh and I got to know him better as a parliamentarian. I was hoping that we could have done the same with the Liberals … I think it was a missed opportunity."