(0:00 - 0:10) Good evening, I'm Will Dove, and these are the top stories for Friday, April 11th. Today, it is all things Carney. Prime Minister Mark Carney has been caught in yet another lie. (0:10 - 1:28) Yesterday at a press conference in Brampton, Ontario, Carney was asked by a Globe and Mail reporter about his meeting with the pro-Beijing group, the Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada, or JCCC. Carney denied ever having heard of them. My colleagues have a story today about a Liberal candidate's relations with China-friendly groups in a meeting that you also held with a pro-Beijing group. So my question is, why did you meet with this pro-Beijing group, Jiangsu Commerce Council of Canada? And is the party okay with the fact that Liberal candidate Peter Yuen has been so close with the Chinese consulate and China-friendly groups, given the public inquiry into foreign interference, says that this is a tactic China uses to exert influence? Okay, well, I'm sorry, but you can't believe everything you read in the Globe and Mail. So in your question, and I guess in the article in question, you said I had a meeting with whatever your term was, a Beijing group. I've never heard of this group. Okay, never heard of this group. Certainly didn't have a set-up meeting with this group. Full stop. So check your sources before you write, things like that. Unfortunately for him, nothing posted to the internet ever really disappears. Here's Carney in a recent photo, taken shortly before his appointment as prime minister with representatives of the JCCC. (1:29 - 1:49) Carney went on to argue that as a politician, he sees thousands of people at his events, and that simply being photographed with someone doesn't constitute a meeting. I'm a politician. I go to events where there are hundreds and thousands, you know, thousands over the course of a day of different people there. (1:49 - 2:20) That is not a meeting. If somebody happens to be in the room, takes a picture with me, that's not a meeting. Okay. In a post on their website from March 14th, the day Carney was sworn in as prime minister, the JCCC claimed that high-level representatives had recently held an in-depth meeting with the liberal leader. Later on in the post, the meeting is referred to as an in-depth exchange with a photo of JCCC president Xu Xiaoguang shaking hands with Carney. It seems that cooperation with the Chinese works both ways. (2:21 - 2:45) After the Liberal Party contacted the JCCC in regards to their post, it was taken down. The URL that had led to the post now shows a 404 not found error. In February 2022, Mark Carney, then an advisor to Justin Trudeau, publicly supported the Canadian government's invocation of the Emergencies Act to address the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. (2:46 - 3:50) The protests, which began as a response to COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers, had escalated into a broader movement against pandemic restrictions occupying downtown Ottawa and minimally disrupting border crossings. In a February 7th op-ed piece in The Globe and Mail, Carney described the protests as an act of sedition in an opinion piece, making a number of false accusations against the Freedom Convoy, stating, Control over the city's downtown core, which includes the Parliamentary Precinct, was ceded by the police and taken over by what the chair of the Police Services Board describes as an insurrection. Carney emphasized that the convoy's stated goal was to overthrow the recently elected government, which he painted as a deliberate challenge to the rule of law. (3:51 - 4:19) The Emergencies Act, invoked on February 14, 2022, granted authorities extraordinary powers, including the ability to freeze bank accounts linked to convoy supporters and compel tow truck operators to clear blockades. Carney endorsed these measures, particularly the focus on cutting off financial support to the protests. He argued that donors, especially foreign contributors, were knowingly funding an insurrection and should face legal consequences. (4:20 - 4:51) By February 21, 2022, large-scale police operations had dismantled most of the protests across the country. Of course, there never were any foreign contributors, just freedom-loving Canadians, who gave generously to those who were standing up for our rights. We are now just over two weeks away from the federal election, and polls of voter intent, which until Trudeau's resignation announcement showed Poilievre's conservatives with a substantial lead, are now almost universally showing Carney's liberals projected to win the election. (4:52 - 5:23) But there are a couple of reasons to doubt those polls. Polls are released by a number of organizations, including 338 Canada, Abacus, Angus Reid, Ipsos, and Leger. And universally, they are showing the liberals in the lead, with numbers ranging from 46% for the liberals over 38% for the conservatives by Angus Reid, 42% to 36% according to Abacus data, and 338 Canada predicting a liberal majority with 196 seats. (5:24 - 5:56) But who's paying for the polls? Both Ipsos and Leger receive substantial government funding, over $1 million each, in 2021-2022. Abacus also receives an undisclosed amount of government funding. While 338 Canada doesn't release their funding sources, it's worth noting that the site was created by Philippe J. Fournier, a political columnist for L'Actualité magazine and a contributor to Politico Canada, as well as an occasional panelist for CPAC, CTV Montreal, and Radio Canada. (5:57 - 6:09) So might it be that the polls are suspect? It's easy to rig a poll just by cherry-picking who you ask. Then there's the rallies. Despite the polls, Poilievre's campaign events continue to draw unprecedented crowds. (6:10 - 6:36) On April 6th, over 15,000 people attended his rally in Kitchener, Ontario, with similar turnouts in Winnipeg and London earlier this month. Supporters filled venues to capacity, with thousands more waiting outside, chanting slogans like, bring it home. These gatherings, often compared to rock concerts for their energy, highlight Poilievre's ability to mobilize voters frustrated with high living costs and government overreach. (6:37 - 7:04) His platform, centered on axing the carbon tax, boosting housing construction and prioritizing resource industries, resonates with attendees who see him as a fighter against elite interests. Meanwhile, Carney's rallies are often described as having drawn hundreds, not thousands. Analysts note the discrepancy between polls and rally sizes could reflect polling inaccuracies or a highly motivated conservative base not fully captured in surveys. (7:05 - 7:19) Poilievre's team dismisses the polls, pointing to the crowds as proof of enduring momentum. Meanwhile, Carney's liberals are banking on broader voter concerns about economic stability and international relations to sway undecided voters.