Conservative Party leaders have ramped up demands for Prime Minister Mark Carney to remove incumbent Liberal candidate Paul Chiang in a Toronto-area riding—alleging his predecessor Justin Trudeau ignored Chinese interference in 2021—after a shocking report revealed that Chiang, in an interview with Chinese media, encouraged Canadians to help deliver a political opponent to the Chinese consulate to collect a bounty.

The explosive story broke Friday after Chiang acknowledged his comments, made in January to Ming Pao, a Chinese-language outlet, and issued an apology in a post on X. However, Carney’s ongoing silence has fueled a wave of condemnation from Conservative leaders and democracy advocates in the Chinese-Canadian community, with influential Ottawa commentators warning this could become the first serious test of Carney’s leadership—and his party’s campaign.

According to The Bureau’s analysis of prior CSIS reporting, comments by Chiang—a former police officer in the Markham area—reflect a longstanding pattern of election interference by the People’s Republic of China in Canada, including the use of Chinese-language media in Toronto, operating under consular influence, to amplify pro-Beijing narratives and promote candidates perceived as sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.

Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole suggested Saturday that the riding of Markham–Unionville, where Paul Chiang unseated incumbent Conservative Bob Saroya in 2021, was among several successfully targeted by Beijing’s interference operations—part of what he says weakened key Conservative campaigns and ultimately contributed to his resignation as party leader.

“This riding was one of the worst for Foreign Interference (FI) in 2021,” O’Toole wrote on X. “Comments from the MP/Candidate confirm longstanding concerns about the result. PM Trudeau ignored FI concerns. I hope PM Carney is more serious. He cannot allow this candidate to stand.”

Chiang, the sitting Member of Parliament and a candidate for re-election, was quoted in Ming Pao suggesting individuals could “claim the one-million-dollar bounty” placed by Hong Kong authorities on Conservative candidate Joe Tay—by bringing Tay to the Chinese consulate in Toronto. According to reporting, Chiang also remarked that Tay’s criminal charge under Hong Kong’s national security law would cause a “great controversy” if Tay were elected to Parliament, before issuing his bounty comment to laughter among the gathered Chinese journalists.

Chiang issued a brief apology after the remarks surfaced on Thursday. But the backlash has only intensified, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre accusing Chiang of echoing Chinese Communist Party repression—and Mark Carney of turning a blind eye.

“Liberal MP and candidate Paul Chiang’s heinous call to turn over a Canadian citizen to the authoritarian regime in Beijing in return for a Chinese Communist Party bounty is no accident—it reflects the Liberals’ long-standing mockery and neglect of national security for their own partisan gain,” Poilievre said Saturday.

“Carney is weak and compromised by money his company owes Beijing. His silence on these deplorable comments says it all. Carney must fire Paul Chiang as a candidate.”

Veteran democracy activist Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, surfaced Chiang’s remarks Friday and called for the MP to resign.

“This is shocking. Mr. Chiang openly encouraged people to assist in China interference and transnational repression,” Kwan said. “Rather than protecting Canadians, he betrayed them and jeopardized their safety.”

Kwan noted that the bounty on Tay was issued by the Hong Kong Police Force under its new national security laws, because Tay runs a YouTube channel in Canada that is critical of governance imposed from Beijing.

On Saturday, Michael Chong—who was himself targeted by Chinese diplomats according to Canadian intelligence—added his voice to the growing chorus of condemnation.

“Paul Chiang’s support for the CCP’s illegal and unjust bounty on a Canadian citizen is shocking,” Chong said. “The CCP is a hostile regime that has interfered in our elections, kidnapped and executed Canadian citizens and remains a grave threat to Canada’s national security.”

“Carney’s silence on his candidate creates the dangerous impression that he condones this despicable suggestion,” Chong added. “If he won’t remove a candidate for calling for the involuntary return of a political opponent in the service of another country, when will he stand up against foreign interference?”

Community leaders have long alleged that Beijing has delivered voters in key Canadian ridings to support candidates seen as aligned with its interests. As Cheuk Kwan put it Friday: “China has been mobilizing voters, especially those in ridings with a high concentration of Chinese Canadians, to vote for China-friendly candidates.”

“It purportedly assisted in the campaign of Chiang to defeat a highly popular Conservative incumbent in the 2021 election,” he said.

It remains unclear exactly how O’Toole and others, including Cheuk Kwan, believe China boosted Chiang’s candidacy—but alleged interference by the Chinese consulate targeting then-Conservative MP Bob Saroya came under scrutiny during a 2023 parliamentary committee hearing.

On April 14, 2023, the Procedure and House Affairs Committee examined allegations of foreign interference in the 2021 federal election, focusing on China’s activities in the Greater Toronto Area. Conservative MP Michael Cooper testified that Saroya received a threatening message from China’s Consul General Han Tao in Toronto roughly ten weeks before the vote.

The message, Cooper said, cryptically warned Saroya that he would “no longer be a Member of Parliament after the 2021 election.” Cooper characterized it as an attempt to intimidate or interfere with a sitting Canadian parliamentarian.

The hearing also saw testimony from Katie Telford, Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was asked about the government’s knowledge of the incident. Telford, citing security constraints, said she could neither confirm nor deny awareness of the message, referring the committee to prior testimony from Canadian security officials.

Telford is among the former Trudeau aides who backed Carney’s leadership.

Meanwhile, an October 2022 intelligence assessment from Canadian Security Intelligence Service provides critical context that helps illuminate Chiang’s remarks to an exclusive gathering of Chinese-language journalists in Toronto.

The leaked document, analyzed exclusively by The Bureau, warns that the PRC has carried out sophisticated political interference operations across Canada, including efforts to control election narratives in Chinese-language media and promote candidates favorable to Beijing’s agenda.

The classified document is labeled “Canadian Eyes Only” and describes how “traditional and online media outlets play an important role during election periods, offering a curated communications channel between political campaigns and the general public.”

Beijing, the report says, actively targets this election coverage, seeking “to manipulate and influence key media entities, control narratives, and disseminate disinformation.”

CSIS analysts trace the PRC’s growing influence over Canada-based Chinese-language media to demographic shifts and heavily resourced state efforts to infiltrate diaspora institutions.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the report says, “30 to 40 people in Chinese media circles meet regularly to come to a consensus regarding what or how an item will be published.” These individuals “act as gatekeepers to ensure whatever is reported in Chinese-language media adheres to pro-PRC narratives.”

“In Canada, a PRC ‘takeover’ of Chinese-language media has transpired over decades, derivative of the proportion of PRC-origin individuals increasing in Canada’s Chinese communities,” the CSIS document states.

This long-term effort has enabled Chinese consulates in Toronto and Vancouver to assert control over media associations, effectively dictating editorial lines. According to intelligence cited in the document, “almost all Chinese media outlets are controlled by local media associations and essentially say the same thing.”

On Saturday night, former Alberta Premier and senior Conservative MP Jason Kenney added his voice to the growing calls for Chiang’s removal, warning that his remarks sent a chilling signal to Canadians who already live in fear of transnational repression.

“This guy simply must be fired as a candidate by his party,” Kenney wrote on X. “This is not a partisan point.”

“I have spent decades working with Canadians who support democratic reforms and human rights in China: Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, Hong Kong democracy activists, Tiananmen Square refugees, and others,” he continued. “Almost all of them live in fear, here in Canada, that their actions will result in dangerous consequences for them and their loved ones.”

“For an MP to encourage, or even ‘joke about,’ those consequences is well beyond the pale,” Kenney added. “It is odious, a fundamental and obvious violation of Canadian values.”

Mark Carney, who assumed leadership of the Liberal Party earlier this year, now faces the first serious Chinese interference scandal of his campaign—and of his nascent political leadership. Questions are also swirling about Carney’s own financial dealings with China, including meetings in Beijing while serving as a global investment executive and dealings with Bank of China as former Bank of England governor. Weeks after one such meeting in 2024, Brookfield Asset Management—where Carney was Vice Chair—received a quarter-billion-dollar loan from Bank of China.

Despite the growing chorus of criticism against Chiang, Carney has yet to comment publicly.

Carney, who has never been elected, has also yet to be seriously examined by an aggressive news media in Ottawa, according to some critics in the Conservative Party. In its report Friday, the National Post noted that when asked for further comment, Chiang’s campaign directed the Post to the candidate’s statement on X.