Canada’s election threat monitoring body has confirmed that national party leaders received a classified security briefing late last week, as public concerns mount over threats tied to transnational repression and a widening controversy involving Liberal MP Paul Chiang’s remarks about Conservative candidate Joe Tay.
The revelation came Monday during a public update by the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force. Allen Sutherland, a senior Privy Council Office official and SITE leader, confirmed the briefing referenced today by Prime Minister Mark Carney covered high-level threat assessments and involved security-cleared representatives from each political party. While SITE would not confirm whether Chiang’s remarks were specifically addressed, the timing suggests they may have been a factor.
“I can speak to a portion of it,” Sutherland said in response to a question from The Canadian Press. “Last week, political parties received a briefing — a security briefing — on threats at the classified level. These are the cleared party representatives of each of the parties. So that briefing took place late last week.”
A CBC reporter also pressed SITE officials on whether they were concerned by Chiang’s comment suggesting Tay could be delivered to the Chinese Consulate to collect a bounty. “I would say SITE is concerned about the bounty placed by Hong Kong on Mr. Tay,” said Laurie Ann Kempton of SITE. “We are aware of the comments.”
Asked what candidates should do if they face similar threats, Kempton said: “They should contact police of local jurisdiction immediately. They are also able to contact SITE and the RCMP if they have other concerns, and we will look at it from there.”
Joe Tay has stated publicly that he fears for his safety and has contacted the RCMP. Asked if police have reached out to Tay proactively, SITE official Greg O’Hayon said: “I’d have to get back to you specifically on whether the RCMP has reached out to Mr. Tay.” He added: “If candidates feel under threat, either immediate or not, I would encourage them to reach out to their local police as well as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service so that we can have a combined response to real and perceived threats.”
SITE officials confirmed that the bounty placed on Tay — a Canadian citizen and pro-democracy activist wanted by Hong Kong authorities under Beijing’s National Security Law — is being tracked as a live case of transnational repression. Officials described the recirculation of bounty-related content online as a coercive tactic employed by Beijing to chill political participation in diaspora communities.
“Spreading the information about the bounty is precisely how malign foreign states seek to silence, harass and coerce,” one SITE official said.
Tay’s situation has quickly become a flashpoint in the 2025 federal election campaign. The Chiang controversy erupted after reports surfaced late last week, based on Ming Pao reporting, indicating that during a January meeting with Chinese-language journalists, Chiang said of Tay: “If you can take him to the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, you can get the million-dollar reward.”
Chiang also told the exclusive gathering of Chinese journalists that Tay’s election to Parliament, while under a Beijing-issued arrest warrant, would cause a “great controversy.”
Chiang has since said his comment was made in jest and issued a social media apology. But Tay rejected the gesture in a press release Monday, calling it “unsolicited” and demanding that Liberal leader Mark Carney remove Chiang as a candidate.
“Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party,” Tay said. “They are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing’s political goals. This situation has left me fearing for my safety.”
SITE also issued a broader warning on Monday: Canada is seeing a rise in both physical and digital transnational repression, including online harassment, smear campaigns, AI-generated deepfakes, and attempts to dox critics of authoritarian regimes.
“In 2023, we informed the public about a targeted online information operation… aimed at silencing critics of the Chinese Communist Party,” said the SITE representative from Global Affairs Canada. “Now, we’ve seen new operations using deepfake content, including sexually explicit images, to further that goal.”
Come back to The Bureau for updates on this rapidly evolving story.
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