Emails from Global Affairs Canada highlight response to China’s outrage over t-shirts created by Canadian diplomats parodying a popular rap group
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The alleged leaks from the diplomatic corps weighed heavily on Canadian officials in the wake of a story published earlier this year by the Toronto Sun.
And Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officials discussed at length how long a quietly posted apology for a diplomatic dispute with China should stay online before being deleted.
Emails obtained through access to information legislation reveal concern among senior GAC staff that one of their own was “speaking out of turn” after interviews with an unidentified official were posted on the Sun Feb 4, 2021 story about a diplomatic controversy with China involving T-shirts with an altered logo of a popular rap group.
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Outrage on Chinese social media quickly spread after Beijing-based Canadian diplomats ordered T-shirts with the phrase “Wuhan Clan,” a satirical alteration of the American hip-hop supergroup Wu-Tang Clan, to mark the first anniversary of a challenging evacuation mission. Canadians out of Wuhan before pandemic closures.
Chinese bloggers and government officials condemned the T-shirts as “racist,” mistaking the stylized Wu-Tang “W” logo for a bat.
“We have someone talking out of turn,” reads a Feb.5 email from Problem Management Director Anabel Lindblad, bringing the Sun article to the attention of superiors.
Discussions about the removal of the official who spoke to the Sun Director General Weldon Epp then urged staff to be reminded that talking to journalists is prohibited.
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A reading of a Feb. 1 phone call between Epp and a representative of the Chinese embassy in Canada showed the Chinese official hinting that the shirts violated the Vienna Convention.
Epp recognized the dispute as an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and expressed disappointment at the Chinese government’s decision to make the problem bigger than necessary.
Canadian officials were also concerned that staff would obtain permission from Wu-Tang to use their logo, leading to a discussion about whether the posts should omit references to the group.
An apology statement was drafted in English, French and Chinese, but the emails suggest that efforts were made to ensure that the fewest number of people saw it.
“I’d rather we avoid the title topic,” Lindblad wrote in an email on February 7.
“And you don’t need to email this.”
She suggested removing the statement from the GAC website sooner rather than later, as Deputy Deputy Minister Stephane Levesque suggested, but GAC Executive Director of Policy Shawn Steil suggested waiting a day to ensure removal of the apology “will not be become a story unto itself. “
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On twitter: @bryanpassifiume
Reference-torontosun.com