According to Global News, former Liberal Party MP Han Dong discreetly spoke with a Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor from a Chinese prison due to the benefits it could provide the Conservative Party of Canada.
Dong also advised Tao that Beijing should display some progress in the Kovrig and Spavor cases to help the Liberal Party, which was and continues to rule.
Chinese police detained Kovrig and Spavor in 2018 in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. They were not released until Sep. 24, 2021, after Wanzhou was released from house arrest in Canada.
In the wake of this new report, Dong has left the Liberal caucus, of which he has been a member since October 2019, and will now sit as an independent.
This report comes amidst a wave of information about a suspected attempt by the Chinese government to infiltrate the Canadian parliament in the 2019 federal election by funding a network of candidates that were running.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reportedly briefed the Liberal Party three weeks before the 2019 election that Han Dong and eleven other Toronto-riding candidates at the time were part of a Chinese foreign interference network.
The warning was reportedly ignored. Dong and Prime Minister Trudeau have both denied these claims.
Dong has also come forth to show he supports investigations into the allegations:
“I will support all fact-based efforts from parliamentarians to investigate alleged offshore interference and, if called upon, look forward to refuting these anonymous and unverified allegations,” Dong said in an interview with Blacklock’s Reporter.
New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh also supports an investigation.
“Serious allegations that individual candidates may have been impacted by foreign interference deserve a thorough, transparent and independent investigation,” Singh said in a statement on the NDP website published in February.
As of March 21, Dong has said that he has not been contacted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Elections Canada, or the CSIS regarding a potential investigation into the allegations.
Edited by: Zoha Jan
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