VANCOUVER — A Vancouver-based activist is accusing Hong Kong authorities of meddling in Canada’s inner affairs after police within the Chinese language territory issued a warrant for his arrest.
VANCOUVER — A Vancouver-based activist is accusing Hong Kong authorities of meddling in Canada’s inner affairs after police within the Chinese language territory issued a warrant for his arrest.
Victor Ho and fellow Canadian Joe Tay are amongst six abroad activists focused by Hong Kong police who introduced rewards of HK$1 million, equal to about C$180,000, for info resulting in their arrests.
The warrants introduced on Tuesday say the six are needed for nationwide safety offences equivalent to secession, subversion and collusion with overseas forces.
Ho mentioned in a Chinese language-language put up on Fb that he is pleased with the arrest warrant, joking that it is the “finest Christmas current.”
“A Canadian citizen like me … has the safety of the Canadian Constitution of Rights and Freedoms, and exercised his proper to the liberty of speech,” he mentioned.
Ho is the previous editor-in-chief of the Sing Tao Each day newspaper, and helped launched a plan in Canada to elect an unofficial “Hong Kong parliament” in 2022.
Solely “patriots” are eligible for election to Hong Kong’s true Legislative Council, underneath a 2021 legislation handed by China’s parliament, the Nationwide Individuals’s Congress, and pro-democracy protesters have been the topic of mass arrests.
When plans for the unofficial parliament have been introduced, Hong Kong’s Safety Bureau mentioned Ho and others have been being investigated for subversion, which carries a most sentence of life imprisonment underneath the Nationwide Safety Legislation.
Within the Fb put up Ho mentioned Canadian authorities haven’t arrested the organizers of the parliament.
“However now it’s truly the Hong Kong communist authorities meddling in Canada’s inner affairs, repeatedly issuing needed notices for this Canadian citizen. Are they making an attempt for an additional cross-border arrest? Does Beijing need Canada to develop into their shopper/subordinate state?”
He mentioned the primary elections for the unofficial parliament are set for March 2025.
“It’s the primary time on this planet a referendum can be held utilizing cellular apps to permit for an nameless, one-person one-vote vote. It is easy for abroad Hong Kongers to take part, to indicate dictators and authoritarian regimes of Hong Kongers’ want for self-determination,” the put up says.
Tay is the founding father of Canada-based activist group HongKonger Station and is in search of the Conservative Social gathering nomination in Markham Unionville in Ontario.
The Hong Kong Police say in a press release the six needed activists have “absconded abroad.”
The Hong Kong authorities had beforehand issued two rounds of arrest warrants and bounties for different outstanding activists, together with former members of the Legislative Council.
In his Fb put up, Ho joked that the reward being issued had allowed him to get well some “fugitive dignity.”
“So I’m price one thing in any case, and it’s laborious for me to cover my satisfaction as we enter 2025,” he mentioned.
Neither Ho nor Tay instantly responded to requests for remark.
— With recordsdata from Related Press and Chuck Chiang
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Dec. 24, 2024
Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
