1. John McCallum was asked for his resignation by Prime Minister Trudeau in 2019.
32 Facts About John McCallum
1. 2.
John McCallum is a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.
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John McCallum has previously been Secretary of State, Minister of National Defence, Minister of Veterans Affairs, and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
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John McCallum was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Joan and Alexander Campbell John McCallum.
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John McCallum received his secondary education at Selwyn House School and Trinity College School.
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John McCallum has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens' College, Cambridge University, a diplome d'etudes superieures from Universite de Paris I and a PhD degree in economics from McGill University.
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John McCallum was a professor of economics at the University of Manitoba from 1976 until 1978, Simon Fraser University from 1978 until 1982, the Universite du Quebec a Montreal from 1982 until 1987, and McGill University from 1987 until 1994.
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John McCallum was dean of the faculty of arts at McGill University, when his future boss, Justin Trudeau was a student there.
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John McCallum then became senior vice-president and chief economist of the Royal Bank of Canada.
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John McCallum was the Royal Bank of Canada's chief economist for six years.
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John McCallum consistently achieved the highest media coverage of bank chief economists, making regular appearances on CBC's The National as an economics panellist.
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John McCallum engaged in social issues, notably a 1997 Royal Bank conference designed to align the business community with the recommendations of the 1996 Report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
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John McCallum successfully nominated Nelson Mandela as the second honorary citizen in Canadian history.
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John McCallum was quite vocal in Canada's debate on same-sex marriage.
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John McCallum retroactively reversed an inequity which awarded up to $250,000 to military personnel who lost their eyesight or a limb while on active service - but only to those with the rank of colonel or above.
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John McCallum determined that the army, rather than the navy or air force, was to be the top priority in budget allocations.
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John McCallum became widely known and criticized in 2002 when he admitted, while serving as the Minister of National Defence, that he had never heard of the 1942 Dieppe raid, a fateful and nationally significant operation for Canadian Forces during the Second World War.
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In November 2002, while still serving as Defence Minister, John McCallum encountered further controversy when officials refused to allow him to board an Air Canada flight because his breath smelt heavily of alcohol.
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John McCallum announced soon thereafter that the incident prompted him to abstain completely from alcohol consumption.
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John McCallum reportedly intended to lose weight and give up smoking.
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In January 2003, John McCallum suggested Canadian troops could avoid so-called "friendly fire" incidents by wearing some of female Conservative MP Elsie Wayne's clothes.
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John McCallum later apologized both inside and outside the House of Commons for using inappropriate language, blaming the excitement of the moment, and had his apologies accepted by Wayne.
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Under Paul Martin, John McCallum introduced a new charter for younger, postwar veterans who have been physically or mentally injured while serving in the Canadian Forces.
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John McCallum took trips valued at $73,300 from pro-Beijing business groups, such as the Canadian Confederation of Fujian Associations.
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On 10 January 2017, it was announced that John McCallum would be appointed as Canada's Ambassador to China.
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John McCallum expressed eagerness to take on the posting in Beijing, citing his strong personal connections to China, as his former riding Markham has primarily Chinese constituents and both his wife and children are of Chinese ethnicity.
27.
On 23 January 2019, John McCallum spoke to Chinese-language Canadian and state-owned Chinese media in Markham, Ontario, concerning the detention and extradition request by the United States, which resulted in the arrest of Huawei deputy chairwoman Meng Wanzhou, who was awaiting court judgement.
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John McCallum shared his thoughts with the media by restating public facts that could make Meng's legal defence case strong against this extradition request.
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John McCallum re-stated other reported motives the United States could have, citing the alleged intent of the arrest by the United States was to attempt to obtain trade concessions from China.
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That week, John McCallum was further quoted as later telling a Toronto Star journalist it "would be great for Canada" if the US extradition request were dropped, conditional on release of Canadians since detained in China.
31.
On 26 January 2019, John McCallum submitted his resignation as ambassador to China, at the request of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who did not disclose the reasoning behind this decision.
32.
John McCallum is married to Nancy Lim, who is of Malaysian Chinese background.