With a federal election and Liberal leadership campaign in the offing, a Conservative nomination race in a Toronto-area riding is sparking new fears about potential foreign meddling in Canadian politics.
The concern centres around a $1-million bounty Hong Kong police announced on Christmas Eve for the arrest of Canadian Joe Tay. Tay is charged with violating the China-controlled city’s infamous national security law by running a YouTube channel here that’s critical of the Hong Kong government.
Tay is also vying for the Tory nomination in Markham-Unionville, facing off against Bob Saroya, who has held the seat in the past and has appeared friendly with Beijing.
The Hong Kong “wanted list,” released just weeks before the likely nomination vote, was undoubtedly a bid by China to undermine Tay’s chances of becoming the constituency’s Conservative candidate, say two prominent opponents of the Chinese regime.
With the Tories enjoying a healthy lead in the polls, there’s a good chance that whoever represents the party in Markham-Unionville will become its MP, they note.
“This is unacceptable,” said Victor Ho, a former Vancouver editor of Singtao newspaper who’s now a Beijing critic. The journalist was also named in the Christmas Eve bounty announcement, charged for his work trying to set up an unofficial, democratic parliament for Hong Kong.
“This is totally violating the Canadian value system,” he said. “We are seeing foreign interference happening in Markham-Unionville riding.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “doesn’t want anybody who is not close to them or friendly with the CCP to be elected in this strategically important riding,” echoed Gloria Fung of the group Canada Hong Kong Link.
There’s already evidence the Hong Kong prosecution of Tay is having an impact in the riding’s large Chinese-Canadian community.
A former Saroya aide suggested on the China-based WeChat social-media site that the charge would prevent Tay from running for the Tories — despite emanating from police in a repressive one-party state.
Asked by another WeChat user if Tay could still be a candidate, Hannah Zheng, who was a constituency assistant for Saroya when he was MP, said “probably not.”
“The party … already knows. I guess his candidacy will be cancelled. Isn’t it necessary to have a document? It is called ‘No criminal record certificate,’ ” she wrote, according to Google translation of the exchange.
Another user says that Tay will cause a “mess” for Canada and should be kicked out.
“Don’t say that,” replied Zheng. “The qualification as a candidate is decided by the party … I certainly think that he wants to be a member of our parliament, but he is not qualified. We also don’t want him to be caught. We just want him to live in Canada safely … Bob is the right choice.”
There’s no evidence Saroya himself has made similar statements. He could not be reached for comment on whether he agrees with his former aide’s analysis.
Zheng did not respond to a text query about her WeChat comments. When contacted by phone, she hung up before answering a National Post question on the issue.
Sarah Fischer, a spokeswoman for the Conservative Party of Canada, said no date for the nomination vote has been set, meaning none of the contenders have been approved to run yet. But the Hong Kong charges would not be a factor, she indicated.
“The Conservative party does not recognize the allegations made by the Beijing-controlled Hong Kong administration as legitimate,” said Fischer.
Tay himself declined to comment, saying that he’d rather “just focus on my campaign to win the nomination.”
The vulnerability of party nomination and leadership campaigns has figured prominently in discussion of overseas interference in Canada, flagged by the federal inquiry into foreign interference, a parliamentary committee and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
Marie-Josée Hogue, the inquiry commissioner, called them a “gateway” for other nations to interfere in Canadian politics. She cited as an example reports that international students coached by the Chinese consulate were bused into the Don Valley North Liberal nomination vote in 2019, won by Han Dong, who then was elected MP.
Concerns centre around the historically loose rules for joining parties — and then having a vote on nominations and leadership — which make them what CSIS calls a “particularly soft target.”
Under intense pressure, the Liberal party last week tightened its membership regulations in the run-up to the leadership election to replace departing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It now requires that members at least have permanent-resident status. They still don’t have to be citizens and can be as young as 14. The Conservatives already required at least permanent-resident status and a membership fee.
We are seeing foreign interference happening in Markham-Unionville riding
It’s a move in the right direction, said Fung, but not enough. None of the parties have a real process for actually verifying a person’s age, their residence in a particular riding or status in Canada, she said.
Nomination and leadership races are “almost like a political vacuum where all foreign interferences are welcome,” said Fung.
Tay was one of six people living outside China mentioned in the Hong Kong police announcement, all charged under the national security law, which has been decried as a tool to suppress the city’s limited freedoms.
The Hong Kong native, now a Canadian citizen, was accused of operating the HongKonger Station on social media, disseminating videos that incite Hong Kong secession, call for sanctions against Chinese officials and “engage in other hostile activities.”
Ho argued that the announcement had two purposes — to threaten those activists like him who are promoting the unofficial parliament, and to try to sabotage Tay’s entry into Canadian politics.
Tay is not even particularly prominent in the Hong Kong democracy movement in Canada, said Fung.
“It has much to do with the fact he is running to be the Conservative candidate,” she said.
Saroya lost in 2021 to Liberal Paul Chiang amid accusations by others in his party that a disinformation campaign orchestrated by Beijing convinced Chinese Canadians they’d be persecuted by the Conservatives if the party won.
A report by Global News suggested that Saroya himself received a threatening text from China’s Toronto consul general in 2021.
But he also has a history of being in tune with Beijing.
Saroya took an eight-day trip to China in 2018 that was mostly funded by a branch of the Chinese Communist Party, meeting with government officials. When MPs voted unanimously in 2021 to label China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority a genocide, he was among a small number who were absent from the House of Commons.
A few weeks after China detained Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in 2019 over Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, Saroya was quoted by the state-run China Daily as saying that Canadians were “frustrated” Ottawa had not lessened tensions with China. He called on Trudeau to immediately call Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Asked about suppression of Hong Kong democracy protesters and the Uyghurs at a 2019 all-candidates meeting in Markham-Unionville, he declined to criticize China, saying “we have to make sure that we are not interfering with some of those governments.” Saroya suggested focusing on the “real issues” that Hong Kong faced under a one-country, two systems model, like education and jobs.
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