On Monday, Mark Carney stood by the Liberal candidate for Markham–Unionville
On Monday, Mark Carney stood by the Liberal candidate for Markham–Unionville
The federal Liberals have been facing pressure to drop candidate after comments about handing a Conservative over to Chinese authorities
OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he will not be dropping Paul Chiang from the race in Markham–Unionville, despite the candidate’s comments about handing a Conservative candidate over to Chinese authorities to collect a lucrative bounty.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy group Hong Kong Watch has sent a letter to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Michael Duheme, urging him to open an investigation to determine if Chiang’s comments are unlawful.
Ed Simpson, the group’s interim director, said that Chiang appears to have breached the Criminal Code as well as the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act by suggesting Conservative candidate Joe Tay should be kidnapped.
“As Canadians prepare to vote on April 28, you must provide reassurance that the RCMP is capable of countering foreign interference,” wrote Simpson.
The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carney said earlier that he was “deeply offended” by Chiang’s comments and said they demonstrated a “terrible lapse in judgment” but believes the episode amounts to a “teachable moment.”
“This is a person of integrity who served his community, as a senior police officer for … more than a quarter of century,” he said during a campaign announcement in Vaughan, Ont., on Monday. “He’s made a terrible lapse in judgment.”
“He’s made his apology. He’s made it to the public, he’s made it to the individual concerned, he’s made it directly to me, and he’s going to continue with his candidacy.
“He has my confidence.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the situation is indeed a “teachable moment,” but not the way Carney intended those words.
“It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada,” Poilievre said on the sidelines of an event in Saint John, N.B.
“If Mark Carney won’t stand up for a Canadian against this foreign hostile regime now, how could we ever expect him to stand up for Canada after the election?”
The federal Liberal party has been facing mounting pressure to drop Chiang as a candidate ever since his comments about his Conservative rival were revealed last week.
Tay, a former resident of Hong Kong, had been charged under Hong Kong’s widely condemned national security law for running a YouTube channel in Canada that was critical of its Beijing-dominated government.
Tay was, until recently, vying for the Conservative nomination in Chiang’s Markham–Unionville constituency; he’s now running in Don Valley North instead.
At a news conference with Chinese-language media in January, Chiang suggested the Hong Kong criminal charge would cause a “great controversy” if Tay were elected to Parliament, according to the Ming Pao newspaper. Then he went further.
“If you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward,” the Liberal MP suggested to laughter from his audience.
The bounty, which is $1 million in Hong Kong dollars, amounts to $183,000 in Canadian currency.
Chiang apologized profusely on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, on Friday, hours after his comments came to light.
“The comments I made were deplorable and a complete lapse of judgment on the seriousness of the matter,” he wrote. “I sincerely apologize and deeply regret my comments.
“I will always continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong in their fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms.”
Government officials who are tasked with identifying and responding to foreign threats during the election have also said they have been closely monitoring the situation.
“What we saw was the news of the bounty was sort of re-upped, but we’re just watching the open space for anything related to that,” said Larisa Galadza, head of Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism, in a briefing to media on Monday.
“That alone, I think, is a form of coercion. Spreading, again, the information about the bounty is precisely how malign foreign states seek to silence, harass and coerce.”
Tay put out a statement on Monday saying that the situation has left him fearing for his safety, adding that he had been in touch with the RCMP regarding his personal protection.
“I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient. Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada,” he said.
“And they are not just aimed at me. They are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing’s political goals.”
Tay said Carney must fire Chiang as the Liberal candidate in Markham–Unionville.
Thirteen pro-democracy groups in Canada with links to Hong Kong also put out a statement urging the Liberal party to “send a clear message” by removing Chiang’s candidacy.
The groups, which include the Toronto Association for Democracy in China and Canada-Hong Kong Link, said they do not accept his “insincere apology.”
Jenny Kwan, the incumbent NDP MP for Vancouver East, has been targeted by Beijing for speaking out against human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
At a campaign event on Sunday, Kwan called Chiang’s comments “absolutely astounding” but fell short of asking the Liberals to remove him as a candidate.
“He is a police officer, and he ought to know that when the CCP went out and put a bounty on anybody, including Canadians, that cannot be acceptable,” she said.
“That is intimidation at its worst.”
National Post with additional reporting from Tom Blackwell and Christopher Nardi
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