Markham-Unionville Liberal candidate Paul Chiang says he’s stepping aside in the federal election following his comments that a political opponent should be turned over to Chinese officials in return for a bounty, as the RCMP confirmed Monday evening they’re looking into the matter.
Chiang announced his exit late Monday night on social platform X, saying as the prime minister and Team Canada work to stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump and protect the economy, “he doesn’t want there to be distractions.”
Please see my statement below. pic.twitter.com/12P50tir4X
— Paul Chiang (@PaulChiangMU) April 1, 2025
The Liberal incumbent made the remarks about Conservative candidate Joe Tay three months ago at a press conference with Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao.
The Toronto Association for Democracy in China said in a news release that Chiang said everyone at the event could claim a bounty “if you bring (Tay) to Toronto’s Chinese consulate.”
The RCMP said in an email that it’s “looking into the matter, however no specific details can be provided at this time.”
“If there are criminal or illegal activities occurring in Canada that are found to be backed by a foreign state, it is within the RCMP’s mandate to investigate this activity,” the statement read.
The RCMP said foreign actor interference, including instances of transnational repression, “continues to be a pervasive threat in Canada.”
“The RCMP takes all such reports and allegations seriously and — in close partnership with intelligence, law enforcement and regulatory agencies — dedicates significant resources to combatting and investigating criminal activity related to foreign interference in Canada’s democratic processes,” it said.
Hong Kong police have offered a reward of HK$1 million, or about C$180,000, for information leading to the arrest of six activists, including Tay, who is running in Don Valley North.
Chiang apologized on social media on Friday, saying the comments were “deplorable” and that he should have known better. He posted again on Sunday to say that he spoke with Tay to personally apologize.
Tay said in a social media post of his own on Monday that Chiang made “an unsolicited attempt to contact me to discuss this matter.”
“I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient. Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada,” he wrote in a statement released on social media.
“Suggesting that people collect a bounty from the Chinese Communist Party to deliver a political opponent to the Chinese consulate is disgusting and must never be condoned.”
Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Chiang’s comments were offensive and a “terrible lapse of judgment” but stood by his candidate, calling him a “person of integrity” who has served his community as a police officer.
Carney faced numerous questions about Chiang at a Monday press conference in Vaughan, Ont., where he was announcing the Liberals’ plan to rapidly scale up homebuilding.
He said he views this as a “teachable moment.”
“(Chiang is) also an individual who has family in Hong Kong. He’s under no illusions about the situation there, the situation in broader China,” Carney said.
“He’s made those apologies. He’s made them directly to the individual concerned, he’s made them directly to me. He has my confidence.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed Carney’s decision to keep Chiang in the race.
“It is a teachable moment. It teaches us that Mark Carney will never stand up for Canada,” he said at a campaign stop in Saint John, N.B.
Poilievre said the Chinese government “wants to literally kill Joe Tay because he’s a political dissident, and this candidate said that that should happen.” He told reporters he has spoken to Tay, who was “very, very rattled” by the comments.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called Chiang’s comments “chilling” and “scary” and said Carney’s decision to stick by the candidate sent a message that his comments were acceptable.
“He’s putting his party ahead of his country in that case. I think that’s wrong, and I think Canadians should find that wrong as well,” Singh said Monday.
Chiang’s comments do not fall under the mandate of a panel of five senior bureaucrats tasked with informing Canadians of any incidents that threaten their ability to have a free and fair election, said Laurie-Anne Kempton, assistant secretary to the cabinet for communications and consultations.
At a press conference Monday to provide general updates on security threats and the election, Kempton said the bounty on Tay is an example of transnational repression that the panel and a task force of security agencies are monitoring.
The public inquiry into foreign interference released a final report in January that said while transnational repression is “a genuine scourge” that requires government action, it fell outside the mandate of what the commission was asked to examine during the hearings.
Justice Marie-Josee Hogue, who headed up the inquiry, also wrote that China was the “most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions.”
The U.K.-based advocacy group Hong Kong Watch has released a letter it sent to the RCMP calling for an investigation into whether Chiang crossed the line into criminality.
“It is without question that Mr. Chiang’s comments are an attempt to intimidate Mr. Tay and his supporters and to silence him during an election. It is without question that there are implicit threats of violence and an illegitimate reward in the form of a bounty,” said the letter, signed by the group’s interim director Ed Simpson.
Hong Kong Watch said it also issued a letter from 40 Hong Kong diaspora organizations demanding action from Carney.
A group of 13 Hong Kong-Canadian organizations condemned Chiang’s words, saying they’re “widely seen as legitimizing foreign interference and potentially threatening Tay’s safety.”
The organizations said Chiang’s apology wasn’t good enough.
“(The comments) further question Chiang’s commitment to supporting Hong Kong immigrants fleeing authoritarian rule. Anyone who is truly sympathetic to the oppressed Hongkongers will not have made such comments,” said the groups, which include the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.
— With files from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa and Alessia Passafiume in Vaughan, Ont.