Latest news with #JoeTay
Epoch Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Canada Has Raised ‘Strong Concerns' With Beijing Over Targeting of Tory Candidate Joe Tay: Global Affairs
Ottawa has raised concerns with Chinese and Hong Kong authorities over the targeting of Conservative candidate and Hong Kong pro-democracy advocate Joe Tay, and says it is monitoring the situation closely after Tay's relatives were taken in for questioning last week. Tay, who ran as a Conservative candidate in the recent federal election, is one of several pro-democracy activists wanted by Hong Kong authorities. In December 2024, they placed a HK$1 million (approximately CA$180,000) bounty on Tay, Tay was also the Global Affairs Canada called the imposition of a bounty on Tay ' s head 'unacceptable,' and said that issuing 'threats and intimidation' against a Canadian citizen amounts to transnational repression, adding it 'will not be tolerated.' 'Canada has raised its strong concerns directly with both Chinese and Hong Kong authorities,' Global Affairs spokesperson Clémence Grevey told The Epoch Times in a May 13 statement. 'We deplore the decision by Hong Kong authorities to punish people for actions that amount to nothing more than freedom of expression.' Related Stories 5/12/2025 5/8/2025 Tay is the founder of pro-democracy platform HongKonger Station. Global Affairs also acknowledged a recent incident involving Tay's relatives in Hong Kong. Last week, reports 'We are aware of Mr. Tay ' s family members being called in for questioning in Hong Kong,' Global Affairs said. 'Canada is monitoring the situation closely and are in contact with Mr. Tay.' Tay has not responded to a previous request for comment. The Epoch Times asked the RCMP what steps are being taken to ensure Tay's safety in Canada but didn ' t hear back by publication time. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis recently 'It is gravely wrong. It is an act of brazen interference,' Genuis said in an interview with The Epoch Times. 'It's also consistent with a pattern that we've seen from the Chinese Communist Party, which is to try to interfere in our democracy, in our affairs, through whatever means they can.' Canada ' s public inquiry into foreign interference identified the Chinese regime as 'the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada's democratic institutions,' according to its final Federal Election Tay's case made the headlines in March after Chiang apologized, calling his comments 'a complete lapse of judgement,' and later withdrew from the election race. His comments Tay 'Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada,' he said in a March 31 'And they are not just aimed at me. They are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance with Beijing's political goals.' Tay's case once again drew national attention when Canadian intelligence officials, just days before the federal election, warned of a Beijing-linked transnational repression operation targeting Tay. The operation, officials said, involved the 'inauthentic and coordinated' amplification of content related to his arrest warrant and bounty, as well as content related to his ability to run for elected office. Tay lost in the April 28 federal election to his Liberal opponent, Maggie Chi, receiving 42.3 percent of the vote compared to the Liberals' 53.2 percent.
Epoch Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Relatives of Tory Candidate and Activist Joe Tay Taken for Questioning by Hong Kong Police, Local Media Say
Relatives of Conservative candidate and Hong Kong democracy activist Joe Tay were reportedly taken in for questioning by Hong Kong national security police, according to local media. The National Security Department took both Tay's cousin and the cousin's wife from their home in the Fo Tan area of Hong Kong to a police station on the morning of May 8 to assist with an investigation, Tay, a Canadian citizen who ran as a Tory candidate in the federal election, is one of several outspoken pro-democracy activists targeted by Hong Kong authorities. International bounties have been issued for Tay and several other activists. 'Sources say that [Tay's] cousin and cousin's wife were taken to the police station from their residence in Fo Tan this morning to assist with the investigation,' reads the three-paragraph news report. 'It is expected that the investigation will be completed as early as noon.' Hong Kong authorities issued a warrant and offered a HK$1 million bounty (nearly CA$180,000) for Tay's arrest in December 2024. Hong Kong officials have The Epoch Times sought comment from Tay but didn't hear back by publication time. Related Stories 3/28/2025 4/21/2025 The news comes a few days after the Hong Kong Watch also expressed concern about reports involving Tay's relatives. 'The Hong Kong government is intensifying its campaign of Transnational Repression,' wrote the group in a May 8 social media Tay's situation drew national attention during Canada's election campaign after it was Chiang later issued an apology, calling his comments a 'complete lapse of judgment,' and promising to 'continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong in their fight to safeguard their human rights and freedoms.' Tay, who was later moved to run in the Don Valley North riding, said that 'no apology is sufficient,' and that the situation left him fearing for his safety. He added he had previously contacted the RCMP about his personal protection. 'Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada,' he said in a March 31 Chiang Chiang's comments about Tay are currently Tay's case made the headlines again in late April, a few days before the federal election, when Canada's elections security task force The operation involved the 'inauthentic and coordinated' amplification of content related to Tay's arrest warrant and bounty, as well as content related to his ability to run for elected office, the security task force said. It was conducted on social media platforms widely used by Chinese-language speakers in Canada, such as WeChat, TikTok, RedNote, and Douyin. Tay lost to Liberal candidate Maggie Chi, a Toronto public servant, by nearly 5,000 votes in the April 28 election. No evidence has been put forward to suggest his defeat was linked to interference by the Chinese regime. Noé Chartier contributed to this report.
New York Times
27-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
With a Bounty on His Head, a Critic of China Runs in Canada's Election
Joe Tay, an actor and journalist running in Monday's federal election in Canada, has not ventured outside to knock on constituents' doors. He has not buttonholed voters at the local strip mall. Nor has he been seen schmoozing at public gatherings. Fearing for his safety, Mr. Tay — a critic of the Chinese government, which has placed a bounty on Mr. Tay and offered $130,000 for information leading to his arrest, and who is running in a key electoral district in Toronto — has waged perhaps the quietest campaign of any candidate competing in the election. And days before the vote, Mr. Tay's ability to campaign shrank even further as Canadian government officials revealed that he had been the subject of coordinated online attacks on Chinese-language sites linked to the Chinese government. For the past four years, Mr. Tay has denounced China's tightening grip on Hong Kong and the disappearance there of democratic freedoms. The attacks sought to discredit Mr. Tay, a Conservative, portraying him as a criminal, and to suppress information about his candidacy, Canadian officials said at a news conference this past week. 'There is a narrative being amplified by the P.R.C. government,' Vanessa Lloyd, the head of Canada's intelligence agency, said, referring to the People's Republic of China. The attacks on Mr. Tay have sought to influence the outcome of the race in Don Valley North, a district with a large Chinese diaspora in Toronto, in what is the most vote-rich region in Canada. The district was also the focus of Chinese government interference in previous elections, and revelations about it raised questions about the robustness of Canada's political system and the willingness of its main political parties to combat foreign interference. A yearlong federal inquiry into foreign meddling in Canada's political system found that a handful of countries — led by China and India — tried to advance their interests in Canada by backing or opposing candidates in the two previous general elections, in 2021 and 2019. The candidates ran in diaspora-rich districts in Toronto and in Vancouver, British Columbia, where foreign governments have wielded influence through community associations, business leaders and other proxies. Most of the overhauls endorsed in the past year to combat foreign interference have yet to be put in place for the current election, though some changes, including weekly intelligence briefings like the one detailing the efforts against Mr. Tay, have raised voters' awareness of foreign nations' attempts to shift public opinion. Critics say that the main political parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, have yet to show full commitment to stop foreign interference at the expense of furthering political interests. In the past two elections, the Chinese government sought to undermine candidates critical of its human rights record and its policies in Hong Kong, including the imposition of a national security law in 2020. Most of China's targets were members of the Conservative Party, which has adopted a tough line toward Beijing. At the same time, the Chinese government or its proxies backed candidates — mostly Liberals — who took a softer stance toward Beijing. In Don Valley North, the Chinese government in 2019 'actively supported' a preferred candidate, Han Dong, in a Liberal Party nomination race, in what the Canadian government identified as a major instance of suspected foreign interference, according to the federal inquiry's final report. According to another report, by a special parliamentary committee, Canadian intelligence said that the Chinese government 'had a significant impact in getting' Mr. Han nominated. Buses transported 175 to 200 foreign students from China to vote, and the Chinese Consulate directed them to vote for Mr. Dong 'if they want to maintain their student visas,' according to the report. Mr. Dong went on to serve two terms in Parliament. Mr. Dong, who left the Liberal Party, recently announced that he would not run for re-election as an independent. Despite the findings, Ted Lojko, who managed Mr. Dong's campaigns in the two previous elections, said there had been 'absolutely' no foreign interference. Mr. Lojko is now managing the campaign of the Liberal candidate hoping to succeed Mr. Han: Maggie Chi, who has worked for city councilors in Toronto and ran unsuccessfully for positions at the municipal and provincial levels in the past. 'Maggie is as Canadian as apple pie,' Mr. Lojko said, adding that Ms. Chi immigrated to Canada from China as a child. 'She's not really interested in what's happening on an international basis in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong.' Mr. Lojko, who declined to make Ms. Chi available for an interview, said that he did not 'make much' of the government's revelations that Ms. Chi's rival, Mr. Tay, had been the target of online attacks coordinated by the Chinese government. A Canadian government election watchdog described the attacks on Mr. Tay as a 'transnational repression operation' carried out by China in Canada. The watchdog said that 'a series of deliberate and persistent activity across multiple platforms,' including WeChat, TikTok and Facebook, drew attention to the bounty on Mr. Tay and denigrated his competence. 'They are consistent with the C.C.P. tradecraft, similar to the other threats that have been made against me throughout this campaign,' Mr. Tay said in a statement, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Tay declined an interview request. Mr. Tay, who has worked as an actor in Hong Kong, in 2021 established HongKongerStation, a YouTube channel focusing on the Chinese government's repression in Hong Kong. Though the Conservative Party ultimately appointed Mr. Tay to run in Don Valley North, he first campaigned in 2023 to become the party's candidate in a district in Markham, just north of Toronto. In December, the police in Hong Kong issued arrest warrants for Mr. Tay and five other overseas activists, accusing them of violating Hong Kong's national security law. 'That is probably one of the most overt and explicit ways that China tries to interfere in Western democracies like Canada,' said Marcus Kolga, the founder of DisinfoWatch, a Canadian organization that tracks foreign interference. 'I suspect that that bounty was placed on him to try and derail his campaign.' At least one of Mr. Tay's political rivals tried to use the bounty against him. In a comment to reporters, Paul Chiang — the Liberal incumbent in the district where Mr. Tay had been campaigning before being appointed as the candidate in Don Valley North — suggested that anyone could take Mr. Tay to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto and collect the bounty for his arrest. Prime Minister Mark Carney defended Mr. Chiang even as he described his comment as 'deeply offensive.' But Mr. Chiang was eventually forced to step down after the police said they were investigating whether his comment broke the law. Polls showed the Conservative Party ahead in Don Valley North early this year, before most Canadians began turning to Mr. Carney as the most capable of dealing with President Trump and his threats against Canada. Now, like in much of the rest of the country, the Liberals are leading in Don Valley North. Naila Saeed, who is running in Don Valley North as the candidate of the New Democratic Party, said foreign meddling in another election in the district would undermine voters' faith in elections. 'It's a very serious concern and threat to our democracy,' she said. Ms. Saeed and others said that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives had wanted to draw much attention to foreign interference during this campaign. While the Chinese government's meddling in Canada had sought to back Liberal candidates, the Indian government is believed to have supported Conservative candidates in an effort to sideline supporters of Sikh autonomy in India. 'It's see no evil,' Cheuk Kwan, a chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, said of the two main parties. 'They're not serious at all about foreign interference.'
Epoch Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Tory Candidate Targeted by Beijing-Linked Overseas ‘Repression' Operation: Election Security Watchdog
A candidate for the Conservative Party in the election has been targeted by a Beijing-linked transnational repression operation conducted through social media, the elections security task force says. Officials from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force provided details on April 21 about the operation directed at Tory candidate Joe Tay, who is running in the Don Valley North riding of Toronto. Tay has been advocating for democracy in Hong Kong and authorities from the Chinese special administrative region placed a HK$1 million bounty (CA$184,000) on him in December 2024. Tay's case made headlines three weeks ago when comments made by his former rival, former MP and Liberal candidate Paul Chiang, surfaced during the election campaign. Chiang had suggested Tay be brought to the Chinese consulate to collect a bounty placed on him by Beijing. Liberal Leader Mark Carney did not remove Chiang, but he eventually By monitoring the online space, SITE officials said they detected the transnational repression operation against Tay on social medial platforms widely used by Chinese-language speakers in Canada. Those include Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, RedNote, and Douyin, the Chinese market version of TikTok. Officials said intelligence reporting has linked one of the Facebook accounts involved in this activity to People's Republic of China (PRC) authorities and pro-PRC entities in Hong Kong. Related Stories 4/17/2025 4/16/2025 The SITE Task Force is composed of representatives from government bodies with a security mandate, such as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the RCMP, and the Communications Security Establishment. The task force said it identified two trends in the transnational repression operation, including the 'inauthentic and coordinated' amplification of content regarding the arrest warrant and bounty placed on Tay's head, as well as content related to his ability to run for elected office. The material includes a mock 'wanted' poster for Tay. SITE said it saw multiple accounts relaying the information, sometimes in quick succession. The other trend noted by the election watchdog is the 'deliberate suppression' of search terms related to Joe Tay. 'When people in Canada search his name, the search engine only returns information about the bounty and arrest warrant,' said Laurie-Anne Kempton, assistant secretary to the cabinet for communications with the Privy Council Office, during a press conference on April 21. SITE officials identified this Beijing-linked operation as 'transnational repression' instead of simply as an information operation. This is 'not about a single act, but rather about the accumulated impact of many acts designed to discredit a candidate, silence criticism and dissent, and manipulate the information that informs voters,' Kempton said. Information Operation Two weeks ago, SITE had An When asked by reporters why he thought China was promoting positive narratives about him, Carney Carney had high-level corporate engagements with Chinese authorities in the fall of 2024 as board chair of investment firm Brookfield Asset Management. A readout from Chinese authorities said Carney had pledged to increase his firm's activity in Beijing. Brookfield also secured a $276 million loan from a Chinese state-owned bank. Carney said during the English-language debate on April 17 he believes China poses the 'biggest security threat' to Canada. Expanding on this comment the next day, he The Foreign Interference Commission, SITE, and CSIS have all identified the PRC as the foremost foreign interference threat in Canada. 'We are aware that never really before has Canada's diverse communities been so highly targeted by foreign interference,' said Vanessa Lloyd, CSIS Deputy Director of Operations and SITE chair, during the press conference. SITE officials said diaspora and exiled communities are particularly targeted, including persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, dissidents, and human rights activists. SITE officials said the operation against Tay has had low engagement since it peaked in December, but the activity had increased during the election campaign. Officials said the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol has deemed the operation is not a threat to the integrity of the election, whether at the riding or broader level. The riding of Don Valley North has a population of 113,663, according to the The riding was the site of a well-known occurrence of Beijing interference in the 2019 Liberal nomination contest involving then-Liberal candidate Tay is facing off in the riding against Liberal candidate Tay had previously been the candidate in Markham-Unionville when incumbent Paul Chiang made the bounty comment in January. Chiang has now been replaced by Peter Yuen as the Liberal candidate in that riding. Yuen is a former deputy police chief in Toronto who had been Yuen attended a military parade in Beijing in 2015 and saluted China's flag while in uniform during a flag-raising ceremony at the Ontario legislature in 2016. He has not returned a previous request for comment. Chandra Philip contributed to this report.
CBC
31-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Election security task force ‘concerned about the bounty placed by Hong Kong on Mr. Tay'
Canadian government representatives from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force were asked about comments made by Liberal candidate Paul Chiang, who called for people to turn in Conservative candidate Joe Tay for a Chinese bounty.
