Conservatives demand Carney fire candidate who said Tory should be turned in for Chinese bounty

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is being urged by the Conservatives to fire a Toronto-area candidate who said people should bring a Conservative politician to the local Chinese consulate to collect a bounty on him for criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong.

Conservative candidate Joe Tay was born in Hong Kong but immigrated to Canada. In December, Hong Kong police announced a bounty of HK$1-million – about $184,000 – for information leading to his arrest for allegedly violating a national-security law imposed on the former British colony by China. Mr. Tay runs a YouTube channel, HongKongerStation, that draws attention to continuing civil rights violations in Hong Kong.

In January, Paul Chiang, the Liberal candidate for Markham-Unionville, reportedly told a Chinese-language media conference that people should take Mr. Tay to the People’s Republic of China consulate in Toronto and collect the reward.

“If anyone here can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward,” Mr. Chiang said, according to Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper.

At the time, Mr. Tay was running for the Conservative nomination in Markham-Unionville. He has since been appointed Conservative candidate for Don Valley North.

Mr. Chiang is the incumbent in the riding of Markham-Unionville. He was elected as a Liberal MP in 2021.

The Globe and Mail contacted Mr. Chiang Thursday about his comments. On Friday, he posted a reply on social media apologizing for what he said.

“The comments I made were deplorable and a complete lapse of judgment on the seriousness of the matter,” the Liberal wrote. “As a former police officer, I should have known better. I sincerely apologize and deeply regret my comments.”

Mr. Chiang added: “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.”

An estimated 300,000 Canadian citizens live in Hong Kong, which was handed over to the People’s Republic of China in 1997 by Britain. A crackdown on civil rights in Hong Kong has steadily eroded the territory’s political and social freedoms, which were unique in China – a legacy of Hong Kong’s years under British control. Critics say the 2020 national-security law effectively criminalizes dissent and opposition.

Conservative candidate Michael Chong, who has served as the opposition party’s foreign affairs critic for years, on Saturday called on Liberal Leader Mark Carney to fire Mr. Chiang as a candidate.

“Liberal candidate Paul Chiang in Markham-Unionville called for a Conservative candidate to be turned over to the authoritarian regime in Beijing in return for a CCP bounty,” Mr. Chong said in a statement. “This is outrageous, and it’s no accident. It’s part of a longtime pattern of Liberals neglecting Canada’s national security in favour of their own partisan interest”

The Conservative candidate said Mr. Chiang’s comments on the “illegal and unjust bounty on a Canadian citizen” are shocking, “particularly to the countless Canadians of Chinese descent who have been targeted and harassed by the Communist regime.

He said the Chinese Communist Party, which has ruled China since 1949, “is a hostile regime that has interfered in our elections, kidnapped and executed Canadian citizens and remains a grave threat to Canada’s national security”

The Liberal campaign, asked for comment on the call to drop Mr. Chiang as a candidate, did not indicate he would be fired and instead justified keeping him.

“Paul Chiang recognized that he made a significant lapse in judgement. He apologized and has been clear that he will stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong as they fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms,” campaign spokesperson Isabella Orozco-Madison said in a statement.

Gloria Fung, convenor of the Canadian Coalition for a Foreign Interference Transparency Registry, also urged Mr. Carney to remove Mr. Chiang as a candidate for his comments. Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberal government passed legislation to set up a foreign agent registry, which has yet to be established.

She said Liberals should be celebrating freedom of expression and condemning transnational repression – not encouraging it.

Ms. Fung said malevolent actors are using the bounty on Mr. Tay to discredit him among Canadian voters for speaking out about the erosion of civil rights in Hong Kong.

“Well-orchestrated fake news is being disseminated via WeChat groups and other social media platforms to smear Joe Tay as being a criminal fugitive from Hong Kong,” she said. “Clearly the warrant list has been weaponized as a means of CCP transnational repression and election interference to discredit candidates critical of Chinese policies.”

In 1984, the Chinese government had pledged in a treaty with Britain that, for 50 years after the handover, Hong Kongers would be guaranteed freedoms not available elsewhere in China, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Instead, starting in 2020, Beijing-backed authorities in Hong Kong have conducted mass arrests of opposition politicians and activists.

In December last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly publicly condemned the Hong Kong bounties on people including Mr. Tay. “Hong Kong authorities are targeting these people for actions that amount to nothing more than the exercise of freedom of speech by standing up for democracy and human rights,” she said at the time.

Marcus Kolga, senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, who also lives in Mr. Chiang’s riding, said if the Liberals fail to remove Mr. Chiang as candidate, they risk becoming complicit in Beijing’s efforts to “intimidate and silence Canadians when it is politically convenient to do so.”

Mr. Kolga said Mr. Chiang as a former police office and public official has a moral and professional obligation to protect Canadians from transnational repression. “His comments send a chilling message to members of the Hong Kong, Tibetan and Uyghur communities who advocate for human rights, freedom and democracy – many of whom remain extremely vulnerable to PRC repression.”