Here's another piece that Global did a few days ago looking into Han Dong's voting record.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9578674/h...n-china-issue/
If you read the facts in the article, it basically shows that on votes related to Chinese interests he has voted twice against Chinese interests, he dodged two votes by being absent, and he has generally voted along party lines.
The framing of the content by Global in the accompanying video isn't what I would call impartial in dealing with this information. The video clearly has an editorial bias and tosses in a few tangential sound bites that work to paint him in a sinister light to keep people riled up about it.
The written article is more balanced, but it also buries the following parts undermining the salacious corruption angle at the end of a long article.
Quote:
In November 2020, Dong did call for a study on “ways to further protect Canada’s democratic and electoral institutions from cyber and non-cyber interference.”
The study, he said at the time, should include “how new domestic and international stakeholders, as well as other orders of government, can work together to strengthen Canada’s whole-of-society preparedness, resilience and civic engagement in the face of evolving threats to democracy.”
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Quote:
“I voted to condemn China when they sanctioned one of our vice chairs of a standing committee,” he said. “I voted to include Taiwan in the WHO. In 2020, I moved a motion in [an] ethics committee to study election interference, domestic and international.”
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and views any overture of support as meddling in its internal affairs.
In October 2022, Dong indeed joined 323 MPs in voting for the politically sensitive country to become a WHO member. And in June 2021, Dong joined all 327 MPs in favour of unanimously passing a Parliamentary committee motion to condemn Chinese sanctions levied against Conservative MP Michael Chong.
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Quote:
In February, Dong publicly supported the Liberal government’s move to expand the open-work permit program for Hong Kong residents.
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“[This] announcement will ensure that Hong Kong residents who share Canada’s values of freedom and democracy will continue to be able to seek opportunities to settle and succeed in Canada,” Dong said in a press release at the time.
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Oh, and it also notes about the conversation with the consul general that:
Quote:
The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that the Trudeau government determined there was no “actionable evidence” after it received a CSIS transcript of a 2021 conversation between Dong and China’s top diplomat in Toronto.
According to The Globe, a senior government source indicated that conclusions could not be drawn that Dong asked Beijing to keep the two Canadians in prison for political reasons.
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On the whole, the content from Global on this is pretty unconvincing. To me, it comes across more as reaching to sell a salacious narrative than hard-hitting and rigorous journalism. It's definitely not something that allows for conclusions to be drawn about any wrongdoing.
I support the allegations being investigated by an authority like the RCMP and appropriate legal consequences if there is wrongdoing, but if it's found that there's nothing of substance there I hope Dong wins a large settlement from Global. Global has likely destroyed the guy's political career and a substantial portion of his personal life with allegations that have had people calling him a traitor, but the allegations themselves are still looking pretty dubious at this point.