» Chinese-Canadians ask Mounties to investigate Carney’s man

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Mark Carney might be standing behind his Liberal election candidate, but a group representing Canadians originally from Hong Kong is asking for criminal charges. Hong Kong Watch has written a letter to RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme asking the Mounties to investigate.

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This is all over Liberal MP and current election candidate Paul Chiang, himself a former police officer, encouraging people to hand over a Conservative candidate to China for a cash bounty. In January, during a session with Chinese language media, Chiang noted that Joe Tay, the Conservative candidate for Don Valley North, had a bounty put on his head by Chinese authorities.

“To everyone here, you can claim the one-million-dollar bounty if you bring him to Toronto’s Chinese Consulate,” Chiang said.

When the news broke late Friday, an uproar emerged, and while Chiang apologized for his comments, he never denied them. There have been calls from the Conservatives, the NDP, dozens of civil society groups for Chiang to be dropped as a candidate.

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Liberal Leader Mark Carney was asked six times about keeping Chiang on and insisted his candidate wasn’t going anywhere.

“I view this as a teachable moment,” Carney said channelling his best Justin Trudeau.

Like Trudeau, Carney believes the rest of us can learn when Liberals make mistakes. I’d be willing to bet 99.9% of Canadians don’t need “a teachable moment” to learn that it’s wrong to advocate for handing over a fellow Canadian to a hostile power in exchange for cash.

Pressed time and again, Carney said he would stand by Chiang.

“The comments were deeply offensive. This is a terrible lapse of judgment by Mr. Chiang. He has apologized for those comments. He has apologized directly now to the person that he mentioned, apologized directly to him yesterday,” Carney said.

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The Liberal leader noted Chiang was a 28 year-veteran with York Regional Police. Wouldn’t being a police veteran mean that Chiang should know better than to advocate kidnapping someone and handing them over to China, a hostile country that wants Tay locked up or killed – just like they recently killed four Canadians?

In their letter to the RCMP, Hong Kong Watch said that Chiang’s words and actions may in fact be criminal.

“Mr. Chiang’s conduct would appear to fit within the parameters of counselling to commit the indictable offence of kidnapping, per Sec. 464 of the Criminal Code,” they wrote.

That section makes it an indictable offence to counsel someone to commit a crime even if the crime isn’t committed. They also pointed to Sec. 20 of the Foreign Interference and Security of Information Act as another possible violation saying Chiang’s actions amounted to aiding a foreign entity in attempting to intimidate or threaten another person.

Campaigning in New Brunswick, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was asked about Carney calling Chiang’s comments a teachable moment.

“Well, it is a teachable moment. It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada. He is keeping on a Liberal candidate who said that people should turn over the Conservative candidate to a bounty by the Chinese government, which wants to kill him,” Poilievre said.

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Poilievre said that Carney’s decision to keep Chiang on as a candidate show that’s he’s too weak to stand up for Canada.

“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?” Poilievre said.

Governing is about making good choices: Keeping Chiang on as a candidate is an extremely bad choice.

Carney faced his first real test of his political career, and he has failed miserably.

Even if he dumps Chiang in the coming days, it’s too late. The Liberal leader has shown us his first instinct and it is the wrong one.

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