OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired his ambassador to China, John McCallum, after McCallum ignored a warning from the prime minister and repeated the mistake of talking publicly about the government’s view of the Meng Wanzhou case and how it hoped to resolve the plight of two Canadians detained in China.

In a statement released Saturday afternoon, Trudeau said he demanded McCallum’s resignation on Friday night.

That was after StarMetro published an interview with McCallum in Vancouver in which he said that it would be “great for Canada” if the United States relinquishes its attempt to extradite Huawei’s chief financial officer.

According to a senior government source, Trudeau had spoken to McCallum earlier in the week after he “misspoke” and told Chinese — language reporters about the government’s view of the Meng case.

Trudeau asked McCallum explicitly to stop speaking about it but was prepared to stand by his ambassador in the face of Conservative calls that he should be fired.

Government officials had initially suggested McCallum was more “forthright” than expected in his comments outlining the view that Meng had “strong” legal arguments to fight extradition, but Trudeau did not, at first, repudiate his comments.

Nonetheless, on Friday McCallum once again spoke publicly.

He told the StarMetro team in Vancouver that the government held out hope that one option for the release of two Canadian men detained by Beijing, would be Meng’s release under a deal with the U.S.

“Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum’s resignation as Canada’s Ambassador to China,” Trudeau said in a statement.

Trudeau did not indicate the exact reason for the dismissal of McCallum.

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However, Fen Hampson, a professor at Carleton University and director of global security and politics at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said Trudeau had no choice but to dump McCallum to distance the envoy’s comments from the government’s official line.

“It doesn’t solve the problem, but it sends the Chinese a clear message that when McCallum was speaking, he wasn’t speaking for the government. The only way the government could put any distance between themselves and McCallum’s remarks was to fire him,” Hampson said in an interview Saturday.

McCallum has been a valued member of the Trudeau team. He was dean at McGill University when Trudeau and a few of his advisers were then students, but they didn’t know him well then. Yet, Trudeau placed a lot of confidence in McCallum when he named him in 2017 to lead Trudeau’s attempt to re-set the Canada-China relationship, as Canada tried to diversify trade away from its main partner, the U.S.

He would have been kept on, it seems, were it not for McCallum’s second misstep.

Former ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques told the Star that the prime minister “had no choice” but to fire McCallum after his comments to the Star, on the heels of remarks McCallum had apologized for mid-week.

“It’s an unfortunate moment for this to happen because we need all hands on deck,” said Saint-Jacques. He said Trudeau needs to quickly find someone senior, knowledgeable and who has the ear of the prime minister to step in.

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McCallum fit that bill in 2017. But Saint-Jacques said McCallum’s resignation now “won’t simplify things” in the relationship which has been strained after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

That arrest was at the request of the U.S. which wants to try her on charges of fraud connected with allegations of trying to mislead banks over Huawei’s ties to a company doing business in Iran — in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Trudeau’s statement thanked McCallum for his service: “For almost two decades, John McCallum has served Canadians honourably and with distinction. He held many positions in Cabinet over the years, including Minister of National Defence, Minister of Veterans Affairs and, most recently, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. His work as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in bringing in over 39,500 Syrian refugees remains an inspiration to Canadians and an example to the world. I thank him and his family for his service over the past many years.”

“Nobody is feeling good about this,” said one senior official.

McCallum did not return the Star’s request for a comment.

But a former foreign affairs adviser to Trudeau, Roland Paris, said he had left the government no choice.

“Mr. McCallum was continuing to create confusion about Canada’s position, even after he retracted his earlier remarks.”

“On a matter of this importance, the government has to speak with a single, clear voice.”

For now, Trudeau named Jim Nickel, a diplomat who is the deputy head of mission in Beijing, as interim Chargé d’affaires, described as a “top notch pro” in whom the government has confidence at this tense time in Canada-China relations.

On Saturday, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer told reporters that Trudeau failed to show “leadership” and fire McCallum right away.

“This is I think part of a bigger problem, and that is Justin Trudeau’s approach to diplomacy where he thought he could conduct image —over-substance foreign affairs, and now Canadians are paying for his mistakes.”

“The time to take the decision was right away,” said Scheer. “As soon as his ambassador sent that message and then contradicted himself, and then days later sent a different message. This decision should have been made days ago. Instead he’s shown weakness on this file and damaged Canada’s reputation and our ability to handle this very important issue where Canadians’ lives, where Canadians’ treatment in China is being affected by this.”

Former ambassador David Mulroney declined comment on McCallum’s firing, but hours earlier posted on Twitter in reaction to McCallum’s interview with StarMetro Vancouver that McCallum had compounded his misstep of earlier in the week. “This isn’t a one-off. China learns, adapts and exploits weakness,” tweeted Mulroney. “What’s not so “great” is that this prolonged, confused public debate confirms for China the effectiveness of hostage diplomacy.”

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith

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