海角社区官网

Chiang is seeking re-election in Markham-Unionville, a riding he took from the Conservatives in 2021 by a margin of fewer than 2,500 votes.聽

At a January event with ethnic media outlets, Chiang spoke with聽, the Canadian subsidiary of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, and referenced a $1 million (HKD) bounty 鈥� about $184,000 鈥� that Hong Kong police had placed on a local Conservative candidate. He told the Chinese-language outlet that if anyone present at the event brought the candidate to the Chinese consulate general in Toronto, they could obtain the reward.聽

The Conservative candidate was Joe Tay, who, at the time, was contesting the party’s nomination in Chiang’s riding. Tay is now the party’s candidate in Don Valley North.聽

Chiang apologized for his remarks on Friday, calling them “deplorable and a complete lapse of judgment,” and saying that as a former police officer, he “should have known better.”聽

The Liberal party’s decision follows intense rebukes from both the Conservative and NDP campaigns on Sunday.

NDP candidate Jenny Kwan, a former target of the Chinese government in part for her advocacy for human rights in Hong Kong, called Chiang’s comment “absolutely astounding.”

Kwan said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) putting a bounty on any Canadian is “intimidation at its worst,” and that Chiang “played right into it.”

“In what universe is this normal?” Kwan said at a news conference with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in British Columbia, adding that transnational repression is a deeply serious issue that has caused people in Canada to fear for their lives.聽

Earlier in the day in Toronto, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters that Chiang “must be disqualified.”

“I find it incredible that Mark Carney would allow someone to run for his party that called for a Canadian citizen to be handed over to a foreign government on a bounty. A foreign government that would almost certainly execute that Canadian citizen. Think about that for a second,” Poilievre said.聽

In December, the Associated Press reported that Hong Kong police released arrest warrants for six activists wanted for alleged national security offences, including Tay, who co-founded聽Canada-based NGO HongKonger Station聽in 2021.

罢补测’蝉听聽references the arrest warrant and bounty against him, and wrote that he would not tolerate 鈥渢his attempt at transnational repression and intimidation.鈥�

Democracy activists have decried changes to Hong Kong’s governance after the ostensibly self-governing territory of China passed a national security law in 2020. According to a law firm’s聽聽of the changes, the law criminalizes acts like secession, subversion and collusion with a foreign entity, with penalties that can include life imprisonment.

In 2024, Hong Kong passed another security law that Human Rights Watch聽聽as a 鈥渇ull-scale assault on rights鈥� in the territory.

The Liberals’ decision to retain Chiang followed an announcement from former Independent MP Han Dong earlier Sunday morning, who said he would not be seeking re-election in Don Valley North.

Dong was elected to the riding as a Liberal in 2019, but left the party’s caucus in 2023 to sit as an Independent. At the time, a Global News report, citing a confidential source, alleged that Dong knowingly accepted China’s help to win the Liberal nomination in 2019 and reported that Dong advised a Chinese consular official to delay the release of then-imprisoned Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Dong has long denied the allegations and has filed a defamation suit against Global News. A public inquiry into foreign meddling in Canadian affairs concluded earlier this year and backed Dong’s insistence that he never called for stalling the release of the two Michaels. The report noted that there were “irregularities” in Dong’s 2019 nomination but did not offer further conclusions as the matter fell outside the scope of the probe.聽

The former MP had sought to rejoin the Liberal fold for this year’s campaign, but wrote in a statement on X Sunday that he had been informed that the Liberals had selected another candidate.

“I have decided not to participate in this election to give the (Liberal party) the best chance to form a government and protect us from the threats posed by Donald Trump,” Dong wrote.聽“I am disappointed not to be part of this important campaign.”

Dong said that he will “continue to seek justice from the court” regarding the lawsuit.

With files from Alex Ballingall and Sheila Wang.