Canadian liberals unhappy with PM's performance at APEC summit

November 21, 2006

The Leader of the opposition, Bill Graham, criticized Stephen Harper's performance at the four day APEC summit in the House of Commons yesterday. He says that the PM called his meeting with the Chinese President "a historic event."

Graham says that it was hardly "a historic event" and his performance was "a big fat zero."

Harper returned to Ottawa from the four day trip to Vietnam yesterday and was away from question period when the comment was made.

"It's always very pleasurable to stand up and give speeches defending Canadian principles. But the test of the speeches is whether they deliver the results," said Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff. "The test of whether Mr. Harper's approach in this 15 minute meeting will be whether this guy is released or not," said Michael Ignatieff, referring to the case of Huseyincan Celil.

Harper raised the case of Huseyincan Celil, a Chinese-Canadian stuck in a China prison for allegedly having links to Muslim separatist extremist groups.

Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, defended Harper and said he was proud of Harper's actions and they protected Canadian values.