A federal task force investigating election interference has uncovered yet another online election interference campaign by Beijing.
The campaign’s objective is alleged to target Conservative candidate Joe Tay.
The Don Valley North candidate and activist for Hong Kong democracy was subjected to a coordinated repression campaign orchestrated by the Chinese government, according to the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections.
This isn’t the first time Tay has been a target of Beijing, as last year, a bounty of $185,000 was placed on his head, offering rewards for information leading to his arrest.
“The information revealed today is, unfortunately, not new to me or my volunteers. We have seen these ‘wanted posters’ and other threats circulating throughout this campaign,” said Tay in a statement.
“They are consistent with the CCP tradecraft, similar to the other threats that have been made against me throughout this campaign. It is critical that all political parties and leaders take a clear stand against this foreign interference.”
SITE announced Monday that there have been posts about Tay’s arrest warrant using mock wanted posters in Chinese language pages on several social media sites, including WeChat, TikTok, Facebook, RedNote, and Douyin.
“The transnational repression and its effect on the democratic process is not about a single act, but rather is about the accumulated impact of many acts designed to discredit a candidate, silence criticism and dissent, and manipulate the information that informs voters,” said Laurie-Anne Kempton, head of communications for the federal government during Monday’s announcement.
One Facebook post read that if Tay won his riding that it would be a “disaster,” warning the Chinese diaspora community that Canada would become a “fugitive’s paradise.”
According to SITE, these kinds of posts are being made by multiple accounts, which were posted and promoted inauthentically within minutes and even seconds of each other.
Additionally, Chinese-based social media platforms are suppressing people’s ability to find information on Tay, instead bringing users to posts regarding his bounty.
This is the same bounty which disgraced Liberal candidate Paul Chiang told people they could claim if they brought Tay to the Chinese consulate. Rhetoric which was defended by party Leader Mark Carey. Chiang ultimately stepped down following the RCMP launching an investigation into his actions.
Earlier this month, SITE detected another coordinated campaign by a Chinese Communist Party-backed news channel to promote coverage of Liberal Leader Mark Carney.
Amplified coverage of Carney includes posts identifying him as a “rockstar” and highlighting his pro-China views.
“In the next month, Canadian voters will use their votes to decide the direction of the plot of this political farce starring Trump and in which Carney is forced to take part – whether to let Carney continue to “fight Trump hard” or let Poilievre try to “fight poison with poison,” wrote Youli-Youmian, the CCP news site.
According to Kempton, the Chinese-state influence operation first amplified Carney’s “stance with the United States” and then boosted “his experience and credentials.”
Carney responded by saying he had “absolutely no idea” why a Chinese-state media outlet was actively promoting him on WeChat to the Chinese diaspora in Canada.
Notably, when confronted by reporters on the issue, Carney did not condemn China’s continued election interference.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called out Carney for failing to condemn the interference campaign and questioned why the Liberals haven’t set up the foreign agent registry, despite it being passed into law by Parliament.
“He was just in China a few months ago arranging a quarter billion dollar loan for his company — a company in which he still has millions of dollars of interest. And, now we find out that the government in Beijing is actively interfering to campaign on behalf of Mr. Carney,” said Poilievre earlier this month.
“He is conflicted. He continues to have financial interests in foreign hostile regimes, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, while he is prime minister of Canada. They have turned this country into a playground for foreign interference.”