Mark Carney keeping Paul Chiang despite his Chinese comments

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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 over a Conservative candidate to Chinese authorities to collect a lucrative bounty.

Carney said he was “deeply offended” by those comments and said they demonstrated a “terrible lapse of judgment,” but believes this episode amounts to a “teachable moment.”

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“This is person of integrity who served this community, his community, as a senior police officer for … more than a quarter of century,” he said during a campaign announcement in Vaughan, Ont. “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.”

The federal Liberal party has been facing mounting pressure to remove Chiang in recent days.

Conservative candidate Joe Tay, a former resident of Hong Kong, had been charged under the city’s widely condemned national-security law for running a YouTube channel in Canada that was critical of its Beijing-dominated government.

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Tay was, until recently, vying for the Conservative nomination in Liberal Paul 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 was 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.

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“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.”

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.”

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Tay said Carney must fire Chiang as the Liberal candidate in Markham–Unionville.

Thirteen pro-democracy groups 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.”

More to come …

National Post with additional reporting from Tom Blackwell

calevesque@postmedia.com

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