1 day Ago By Ari Yanover
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..
