“These are serious allegations, and if true, the minister needs to answer to them,” said PC candidate Mike Yen, speaking for the party.
Michael Chan, the Ontario minister of tourism and culture and Liberal MPP for Markham-Unionville, is alleged to have told organizers of the Taste of Asia to ban The Epoch Times from their event because the newspaper’s presence at the festival in 2008 upset then-Chinese Consul General Zhu Taoying.
A source involved in organizing the event, put on by the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham, told The Epoch Times that the newspaper’s request to return this year had been rejected because organizers had promised Michael Chan not to have the newspaper attend.
At the 2008 event, Consul Zhu became very upset after seeing the Epoch Times booth, the source said.
“After that, Michael Chan was very unhappy. We then made a verbal commitment [to Chan] that we would not accept The Epoch Times in future events,” the source said.
The Epoch Times publishes a Chinese-language edition that frequently reports on news censored in China, including human rights abuses such as those against the Falun Gong spiritual practice, and carries articles critical of the ruling communist party.
Chan’s ministry of tourism and culture provides funding to Taste of Asia, including $75,000 this year through the Celebrate Ontario 2011 fund it oversees.
The source said the Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham would be supporting Chan in his re-election campaign, another “important reason” to deny The Epoch Times a booth at the event, which was held in June.
Yen said a story that ran in last week’s edition of The Epoch Times was the first he’d heard of the allegations against Chan, and that “definitely this is going to have to be looked at, for sure.” If true, this is not acceptable behaviour, he said.
Yen said he was asked by the party headquarters to respond to this issue as his riding includes Chinatown and he is involved in many Chinese community events.
The Epoch Times contacted the office of Premier Dalton McGuinty as well as the campaign headquarters of the Ontario Liberal Party, but no comments were provided.
Last week, a representative for Chan’s campaign declined repeated requests to say whether Chan had told Taste of Asia organizers to exclude the newspaper.
“With regards to who is invited to Taste of Asia, only the organizers, which is the organizers of Taste of Asia, only they can determine who is invited to the festival. So I have no further comments on this topic,” said the representative, who would identify himself only as Mark.
CSIS Concerned
Last year, CSIS director Richard Fadden told the CBC his agency was concerned that political figures in a couple of provinces had “developed quite an attachment to foreign countries.”
“The individual becomes in a position to make decisions that affect the country or the province or a municipality. All of a sudden, decisions aren’t taken on the basis of the public good but on the basis of another country’s preoccupations,” Fadden said.
Last week’s Epoch Times story reported that Chan’s budding relationship with the Chinese communist regime alarmed at least one former CSIS manager.
Chan “should know better” than to have been meeting with representatives of the United Front Work, as he has done on multiple occasions according to Chinese media reports, said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior intelligence officer with CSIS.
United Front Work is an arm of the Chinese intelligence that attempts to expand Chinese influence abroad.
Chan has also been a guest at important political events in China, including celebrations in Tiananmen Square in 2009 marking 60 years of communist rule.
In an interview with the state-run Xinhua News Agency at that event, Chan is quoted as saying, “The motherland is great … the motherland is strong … our overseas Chinese hearts are with the motherland. We are proud of the motherland for its development.”
