Scheer wants Champagne, Trudeau to explain minister's two Chinese mortgages

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer wants Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne to explain how his holding two mortgages with a Chinese bank doesn't compromise his ability to deal with the People's Republic.

Scheer wants Champagne to appear before the special House of Commons committee on Canada-China relations and he says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to justify the cabinet appointment there too.

Scheer says Champagne is Canada's top diplomat and China's communist leaders can use the $1.2 million he owes on two London properties to the Bank of China as leverage at a time of strained relations.

Scheer pointed to the ongoing dispute that has seen two Canadian men arbitrarily detained by China since December 2018 and the fact Canada is dependent on Chinese supplies of personal protective equipment for COVID-19.

Scheer says some of those Chinese imports have included millions of defective masks that were of no use to front-line health workers.

Scheer is dismissing Liberal government rebuttals that Champagne disclosed the situation to the ethics commissioner and the information is posted publicly.