I don't generally agree with calls for candidates to resign, but I'm willing to make an exception in this case:
Conservative candidate Joe Tay was born in Hong Kong but immigrated to Canada. In December, Hong Kong police announced a bounty of HK$1-million – about $184,000 – for information leading to his arrest for allegedly violating a national-security law imposed on the former British colony by China. Mr. Tay runs a YouTube channel, HongKongerStation, that draws attention to continuing civil rights violations in Hong Kong.
In January, Paul Chiang, the Liberal candidate for Markham-Unionville, reportedly told a Chinese-language media conference that people should take Mr. Tay to the People’s Republic of China consulate in Toronto and collect the reward.
“If anyone here can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward,” Mr. Chiang said, according to Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper.
...
In December last year, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly publicly condemned the Hong Kong bounties on people including Mr. Tay. “Hong Kong authorities are targeting these people for actions that amount to nothing more than the exercise of freedom of speech by standing up for democracy and human rights,” she said at the time.
Marcus Kolga, senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, who also lives in Mr. Chiang’s riding, said if the Liberals fail to remove Mr. Chiang as candidate, they risk becoming complicit in Beijing’s efforts to “intimidate and silence Canadians when it is politically convenient to do so.”
Mr. Kolga said Mr. Chiang as a former police officer and public official has a moral and professional obligation to protect Canadians from transnational repression. “His comments send a chilling message to members of the Hong Kong, Tibetan and Uyghur communities who advocate for human rights, freedom and democracy – many of whom remain extremely vulnerable to PRC repression.”
As I said, I don’t believe cons are saying this from a place of good intentions. So I agree with that. Yes, the complaints are hypocritical.
But I also don’t think it’s at all funny to joke about how the Chinese government puts a bounty on our people. In our own country! This is a real thing that is happening to real people.
That said, I’m wiling to hear out the full context on it. I can’t imagine a context that would make it okay, but there are lots of things I can’t imagine. But as it stands with the context I’m aware of it’s completely unacceptable.
So it’s not about agreeing with the conservatives or not. I don’t. I’m literally going door-knocking in a few hours to help get the vote out to ensure they do not win. A friend of mine who is rather old is volunteering in Carleton trying to unseat PP and I donated heavily to that riding in order to support them.
But also, I do not accept that we should allow our candidates from any party to make light of the abuses that the Chinese government is heaping on Canadians. Even candidates from a party I explicitly am supporting .