AGAR: Carney’s handling of Chiang’s comments shows poor judgment​on March 31, 2025 at 8:42 pm

Does character matter? 

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Liberal leader Mark Carney has shown us that the answer is no, character does not matter when it comes to the inconvenience and possible seat loss of replacing a problematic candidate weeks before an election. 

Mark Carney is keeping Paul Chiang as a candidate, calling this incident a “teachable moment.” 

Chiang is the incumbent Liberal candidate in the upcoming federal election, running to maintain his seat in the riding of Markham—Unionville. 

Speaking with Chinese language media Chiang encouraged people in his Toronto-area riding to turn in Conservative politician Joe Tay, a former resident of Hong Kong, to the Chinese consulate and collect the $183,000 bounty placed on his head by Hong Kong police. 

China condemns Tay for running a YouTube channel in Canada critical of the enclave’s Beijing-dominated government. 

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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says that Carney, “is keeping on a Liberal candidate who said that people should turn over the Conservative candidate to a bounty by the Chinese government, which wants to kill him. The Chinese government wants to literally kill Joe Tay because he is a political dissident. And this candidate said that that should happen.” 

I spoke to Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, asking whether Chiang’s apology is good enough, as Carney suggests it is. 

“That’s not good enough,” he said. “If you are an incumbent MP, and you are running for election, you have every obligation to uphold Canadian values, and to be aiding and abetting Hong Kong’s direction on transnational repression, you are not only violating the law, but also your moral authority.” 

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I said, “Let me put it more bluntly, Mr. Kwan. Is it true that China would pay that bounty to someone if they killed Joe Tay?” 

“Yes. Killing him is maybe the easy way to do it. Kidnap him. China is probably still operating many police stations in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver; a disguised basement office where they purportedly help with visa extensions or driver licence renewals.” 

But Kwan says that Chinese people in Canada, including himself, are under intimidation and threat from Chinese operatives in the form of surveillance and people standing across from a person’s home, watching. 

Chiang says that his comments were a lapse in judgement. 

It stretches credulity to think that calling for the kidnapping and possible murder of another Canadian merely to collect a bounty is something that could accidentally slip off the lips of a politician. Was he currying favour with a brutal foreign regime, when in fact he is elected to represent all Canadian’s safety, regardless of their origin? 

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Tay has broken no Canadian law nor is he wanted by the Chinese for something we would consider a violation in Canada. 

The group Hong Kong Watch issued a statement Monday, saying, “Today, Hong Kong Watch issued a letter to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Michael Duheme, urging him to immediately open an investigation to Liberal candidate and incumbent Member of Parliament for Markham–Unionville Paul Chiang’s comments against Conservative candidate for Don Valley North Joe Tay.” 

Kwan says it is, “Shocking and surreal that this could happen to a Canadian politician,” meaning Joe Tay. 

It is shocking and surreal that Mark Carney does not show the proper character to replace his candidate. 

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