With a Bounty on His Head, a Critic of China Runs in Canada’s Election

Joe Tay, actor and journalist who runs in the federal elections on Monday in Canada, has not ventured at the gates of the constituents. He has no Buttonholt voters in the local shopping center. Nor has Bone Schmoozing seen in public meetings.

Fearing for his safety, Mr. Tay, a critic of the Chinese government, who has put a generosity with Mr. Tay and offered $ 130,000 for information that leads to his judgment, and that is executed in a key electoral district in Toronto, has perhaps fought the quieter campaign of any candidate that competes in the elections.

And days before the vote, the capacity of Mr. Tay to campaign was further reduced, since Canadian government officials revealed that it had been subject to online attacks coordinated in sites in Chinese sites linked to the Chinese government. During the last four years, Mr. Tay has denounced China’s squeery about Hong Kong and the disappearance of democratic freedoms.

The attacks sought to discredit Mr. Tay, a conservative, portraying him as a criminal and suppressing information about his candidacy, Canadian officials said at a press conference last week.

“The RPC government amplifies a narrative,” said Vanessa Lloyd, head of the Canadian intelligence agency, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

The attacks against Mr. Tay have tried to influence the result of the race in Don Valley North, a district with a large Chinese diaspora in Toronto, in what is the richest region in votes in Canada.

The district was also the focus of the interference of the Chinese government in the previous elections, and the revelations in this regard raised questions about the strength of the political system of Canada and the will of its main political parties to combat foreign interference.

A one year federal investigation into foreign interference in the political system of Canada found found a handful of countries, led by China and India, tried to advance their interests in Canada by supporting or opposing candidates in the two previous elections.

The candidates were executed in districts rich in diaspora in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, where foreign governments have exerted influence through community associations, business leaders and other representatives.

Most of the reviews backed last year to combat foreign interference have not yet been implemented for current elections, they thought that some changes, including weekly intelligence such as the one detailing the efforts against Mr. Tay, has increased the awareness of voters about the attempts of foreign nations to change public opinion.

Critics say that the main political parties, liberals and conservatives have not yet shown a total commitment to stop foreign interference at the expense of promoting political interests.

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At the same time, the Chinese government or its representatives supported the candidates, mostly liberals, who take a softer position towards Beijing.

In Don Valley North, the Chinese government in 2019 “actively supported” a favorite candidate, Han Dong, in a liberal party nomination career, in which the Canadian government identified as a main instance of the Foreign Report.

According to another report, by a special parliamentary committee, Canadian Intelligence said the Chinese government “had a significant impact on the nominee.”

Buses transported 175 to 200 foreign students from China to vote, and the Chinese consulate ordered them to vote for Mr. Dong “if they want to agree on their students’ visas,” Chordination to the report. Mr. Dong used to fulfill two terms in Parliament.

Mr. Dong, who left the Liberal Party, recently announced that he would not apply for re -election as an independent.

Despite the findings, Ted Lojko, who administered Mr. Dong’s campaigns in the two previous elections, said there had been no “absolutely” foreign interference.

Mr. Lojko is now managing the campaign of the liberal candidate in the hope of happening to Mr. Han: Maggie Chi, who has worked for the city councilors in Toronto and was running out of success for municipal and provincial levels in the past.

“Maggie is as Canadian as the apple cake,” Lojko said, adding that Mrs. Chi emigrated to Canada from China as a child. “She is not really interested in what is happening on an international basis in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong.”

Mr. Lojko, who refused to do more. Chi Av Sheet for an interview, he said that he did not “do much” the Government’s revelations that Mrs. Chi’s rival, Mr. Tay, had been the objective of online attacks coordinated by the Chinese government.

An electoral control agency of the Canadian government described the attacks against Mr. Tay as a “transnational repression operation” carried out by China in Canada. The Guardian dog said that “a series of deliberate and persistent activities on multiple platforms,” ​​including Wechat, Tiktok and Facebook, caught the generosity of Mr. Tay and denigrated his competition.

“They are consistent with the handcraft of the PCCH, similar to the other threats that have made me through this campaign,” Tay said in a statement, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Tay rejected an interview application.

Mr. Tay, who has worked as an actor in Hong Kong, in 2021 established the Hongkunger station, a YouTube channel focused on the repression of the Chinese government in Hong Kong. He thought that the conservative party finally appointed Mr. Tay to run for Don Valley North, the first to campaign in 2023 to become the candidate of the party in a district in Markham, just north of Toronto.

In December, the police in Hong Kong issued orders of trial for Mr. Tay and five other activists abroad, accusing the issue or violating the National Security Law of Hong Kong.

“That is one of the most explicit ways that China tries to interfere with Western democracies such as Canada,” said Marcus Kolga, founder of Dissinfowatch, a Canadian organization that tracks foreign interference. “I suspect that this reward was placed on him to try to derail his campaign.”

At least one of Mr. Tay’s political rivals tried to use generosity against him. In a comment to journalists, Paul Chiang, the liberal headline in the district where Mr. Tay had been campaigning before being appointed as a candidate in Don Valley North, suggested that anyone could take Mr. Tay to the Chinese consulate in Toronto and collect the reward for his trial.

Prime Minister Mark Carney defended Mr. Chiang even when he described his comment as “deeply offensive.” But Mr. Chiang was possible to resign after the police said that investigating whether his comment violated the law.

The surveys showed that the conservative party was advanced in Don Valley North earlier this year, before most Canadians began to resort to Mr. Carney as the most capable of dealing with President Trump and his threats against Canada. Now, as in much of the rest of the country, liberals lead in Don Valley North.

Naila Saeed, who runs in Don Valley North as a candidate for the new Democratic Party, said that foreign interference in another election in the district undercut the faith of voters in the elections.

“It is a very serious group and a threat to our democracy,” he said.

Mrs. Saeed and others said that Neith Liberals or conservatives had wanted to call close attention to the duration of foreign interference in this campaign.

While the intrusion of the Chinese government in Canada had tried to support liberal candidates, it is believed that the Indian government has supported conservative candidates in an effort to put aside supporters of SIJ autonomy in India.

“You don’t look bad,” said Cheuk Kwan, president of the Toronto Democracy Association in China, on the two main parties. “They are not serious at all about foreign interference.”