The Paul Chiang PRC Bounty Hunter Scandal
Counselling Kidnapping + Foreign Interference + PRC election interference
The Scandal: On January 22, 2025 Chinese language news outlet Ming Pao Canada reported the following quote by former police officer and federal MP for Markham-Unionville Paul Chiang.1
[Paul Chiang] said that [Joe Tay] had opened a media in Hong Kong and is now a radio host in Canada (online channel "Hong Kong TV"), but now he is [wanted] by the "Chinese government" (Hong Kong police) for a million Hong Kong dollars. If you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the reward of this million yuan. — Ming Pao Canada
On January 14, 2025 the National Post reported on the charges laid on Joe Tay by Hong Kong police. Charged with violating [China’s] national security law, NaPo reported about Joe Tay. The HK police announced a bounty for the arrest of Joe Tay on Christmas Eve.
Paul Chiang did not deny saying this. He apologised, referring to a lapse in judgement and promised it would not happen again. Liberal leader Mark Carney refused to take action against the MP and Liberal Party candidate for Markham-Unionville, adding that he views the incident as a teachable moment and that he had confidence in Chiang.
Carney has long-standing ties to PRC, including relationships with high ranking officials and financial and business ties through his work at Brookfield Asset Management and before that as Governor of the Bank of England. As I’ve reported here previously, Carney has significant conflicting interests when it comes to China. He became the chair of the Trudeau’s Task Force on Economic Growth in September2. A month later, Carney travelled to Beijing3, where he met with the Governor of the Bank of China and other top level PRC/CCP officials, and a month later Bloomberg announced that BAM had secured a $276 million loan from the state owned Bank of China. Carney has publicly admired the PRC leadership as visionary and ambitious, see the clip below the photo of Mark Carney and Xi Jinping.
The Facts: Counselling Kidnapping is a Criminal Offense. Political Interference for a Foreign Entity is a Criminal Offense. Unduly Influencing an Election is a Federal Offense. The Security Clearance the Liberal Party of Canada wants Pierre Poilievre to get would prevent him from ever publicly speaking about the foreign interference scandals — it would likely prevent him from commenting on the Paul Chiang Bounty Hunter Scandal, which appears to be a small not so small part of a MUCH BIGGER foreign interference story. Trudeau has ignored security reports about this issue and he’s dodged calls to take action, including establishing a Foreign Agent Registry.
Background: In December of 2024, Hong Kong police released a wanted list of dissidents, meaning those individuals critical of the People’s Republic of China. Conservative candidate Joe Tay appears on that list for running a YouTube channel that criticises the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong is known as a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. The PRC ranks among the countries with the strictest censorship regimes in the world. Freedom House ranks the PRC as not free and it ranks Hong Kong as partly free. When you look at the methodology and ranking system you can see how Hong Kong sits at the margin of Partly Free and Not Free. The asterisk in the HK profile indicates HK as a territory and not an independent country.
What’s it all mean? Well, it means that MP and Liberal Party of Canada candidate Paul Chiang engaged in Counselling Kidnapping for a hostile foreign entity with a view to unduly influencing the 45th Canadian federal election. Chiang deliberated targeted an individual who fled to Canada from Hong Kong as a dissident, with a view to intimidation — a behaviour taken from the PRC political playbook. Chiang targeted Joe Tay, who at the time hoped to seek a Conservative Party nomination in Don Valley North, another Toronto area federal riding. Hong Kong Watch made a statement announcing intention to request an RCMP investigation on the incident. Joe Tay was appointed and is running as the candidate for Don Valley North. In the clip below Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of Toronto Association for Democracy in China, one of the 40 groups that signed the letter, tells the CBC he thinks the incident is the tip of the foreign interference iceberg.
It is crucial to recognize that these threats are not just aimed at Mr. Tay. The PRC uses these fear tactics to send a chilling signal to the entire diaspora in order to force compliance and acquiescence to their extraterrestrial goals … After years of revelations of Beijing's interference in our democracy, it is long past time for Canada to take action. — Ed Simpson, Hong Kong Watch in a letter of RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme.4
UPDATE: The latest news is that Paul Chiang stepped down from his candidacy. This does not erase the behaviour, which appears to be a violation of three different federal laws, listed below. It doesn’t make the problem of Transnational Repression any less pressing. Foreign interference remains a serious threat to Canadian democracy and the integrity of our institutions and the safety of our diaspora communities.
Applicable Canadian Law
Criminal Code: Attempts — Conspiracies — Accessories
Counselling offence that is not committed
464 Except where otherwise expressly provided by law, the following provisions apply in respect of persons who counsel other persons to commit offences, namely,
(a) every one who counsels another person to commit an indictable offence is, if the offence is not committed, guilty of an indictable offence and liable to the same punishment to which a person who attempts to commit that offence is liable; and
(b) every one who counsels another person to commit an offence punishable on summary conviction is, if the offence is not committed, guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 464
R.S., 1985, c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 60
Foreign Interference and Security of Information: Political Interference for a Foreign Entity
Marginal note:Influencing political or governmental process
20.4 (1) Every person commits an indictable offence who, at the direction of, or in association with, a foreign entity, engages in surreptitious or deceptive conduct with the intent to influence a political or governmental process, educational governance, the performance of a duty in relation to such a process or such governance or the exercise of a democratic right in Canada.
Elections Act: Undue influence by foreigners
282.4 (1) No person or entity referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (e) shall, during an election period, unduly influence an elector to vote or refrain from voting, or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate or registered party, at the election:
(a) an individual who is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and who does not reside in Canada;
(b) a corporation or entity incorporated, formed or otherwise organized outside Canada that does not carry on business in Canada or whose primary purpose in Canada during an election period is to influence electors during that period to vote or refrain from voting, or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate or registered party, at the election;
(c) a trade union that does not hold bargaining rights for employees in Canada;
(d) a foreign political party; or
(e) a foreign government or an agent or mandatary of a foreign government.
Paul Chiang won his seat during the 2021 federal election, and controversy swirls regarding PRC interference around his nomination and campaign. CSIS reported intercepting calls via wiretapping that indicate the PRC Consul General clandestinely supported a candidate for the 44th election. (Sam Cooper, 6.12.2023, The Bureau)
This was a Liberal Party of Canada appointment not a Government of Canada appointment, the distinction matters for ethics vis a vis Section 32 of the Parliament of Canada Act.
It is unclear in what capacity Carney travelled to China — ie Liberal Party or Brookfield Asset Management or both.
This is a joint letter from 40 Hong Kong organizations