MP Han Dong says he's retained lawyer, plans to sue Global News over interference report
MP Han Dong says he's retained lawyer, plans to sue Global News over interference report
Toronto MP Han Dong says he is taking legal action over a media report that alleged he spoke to a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 about delaying the release of two Canadians detained in China at the time.
Global News reported this month that Dong told the Chinese consul general to Toronto that keeping Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in prison would be politically damaging to the opposition Conservatives – an allegation Dong vehemently denies.
The network attributed the information to two unnamed national security officials. CTV News has not verified the allegation.
In the statement, the MP for Don Valley North says his father was imprisoned and sent to a re-education in China in 1970, during the Cultural Revolution -- Mao Zedong’s brutal crackdown on dissent.
“It is inconceivable that I would ever suggest a falsely-accused individual should spend an extra minute in jail,” he said.
A separate report in The Globe and Mail said the Prime Minister’s Office has examined a transcript of Dong’s call with the diplomat and found it contained no “actionable evidence.”
Dong says he has retained a lawyer to launch legal action against Global News and its parent company, Corus Entertainment.
Under Ontario’s defamation law, the first step in a claim would require Dong to send a notice to the media outlet before filing a lawsuit seeking damages. Dong has not filed a statement of claim in court yet.
The network has not received a libel notice from Dong, according to Global’s editor-in-chief, Sonia Verma.
“Global News is governed by a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices, and we are very mindful of the public interest and legal responsibility of this important accountability reporting,” she said in an email.
After the Global report, Dong announced he was leaving the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent MP while he fights to clear his name.
Last week, he voted with the opposition and against the Liberals on a motion calling for a full public inquiry into alleged foreign interference in Canadian elections. In his statement, he said he did this to show that he had “nothing to hide.”
He said he supports the prime minister’s decision to appoint former governor general David Johnston as a special rapporteur on election interference and offered to meet with him and provide any information he needs.
Dong, born in Shanghai, says his family left China two months after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters.
“Despite the abuse and shame my family has suffered over the last few weeks, I truly believe that my parents made the right decision to come to Canada,” he said.
A New Democrat MP is trying to convince his colleagues to change the rules that govern the House of Commons in a series of ways he says would instill 'democratic controls' on the prime minister's 'unfettered' powers.
Monday morning, the Public Service Alliance of Canada announced it had reached a 'tentative' agreement with the federal government for the 120,000 picketing Treasury Board workers who, since April 19, had been engaged in one of the largest strikes in Canadian history. Here's a rundown of the developments from Parliament Hill as they happened.
The House committee studying foreign election interference heard from top 2019 and 2021 Liberal and Conservative campaign directors on Tuesday, with party officials from both camps speaking about the need for politicians to come together to address any "legislative gaps" ahead of the next vote.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
U.S President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced updates on a number of cross-border issues, after a day of meetings on Parliament Hill.
Danielle Smith's win in the Alberta election hands her the most starkly divided province confronting any premier in Canada, writes commentator Don Martin.
Special rapporteur David Johnston didn't recommend public inquiry knowing it was a pathetically insufficient response for a foreign democratic assault of this magnitude, writes Don Martin in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
To frame a few new illustrations on pages tucked inside a passport as proof of a Liberal plot to purge the Canadian historical record seems like a severe stretch, writes Don Martin in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is a bright former federal prosecutor, who was destined to be a star in Justin Trudeau's cabinet. But in an opinion column on CTVNews.ca, Don Martin argues Mendicino has taken a stunning fall from grace, stumbling badly on important issues just 18 months into the job.
It's the most peculiar of elections with the frontrunner and her main opponent being the same person, writes columnist Don Martin. 'In the looming Alberta showdown, it's Premier Danielle Smith versus her mouth.'
China's military rebuked the United States and Canada for 'deliberately provoking risk' after the countries' navies staged a rare joint sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
A fishing excursion ended in tragedy on Saturday when four children died in a village in northeastern Quebec, provincial police said. Authorities said they were still searching for a missing man in his 30s who was a member of the fishing party and remained unaccounted for.
Heavy rain and some military reinforcements arrived to assist efforts on Saturday to quell the wildfires that have destroyed homes and caused the evacuation of thousands of people across Nova Scotia.
The U.S. Ambassador to Canada says America 'absolutely wants to have it both ways' when it comes to fighting climate change while pursuing fossil fuel projects.
New study finds increase in antipsychotic drugs use in long-term care homes across Canada, despite no significant increase in behavioural symptoms – something that may expose a potential area of concern for quality of care, researchers say.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the process to sell the Ottawa Senators is moving forward as "quickly as possible," and the New York-based company overseeing the sale is advising to "expect a very good outcome in the next few weeks."
Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country's air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage.
Heavy rain and some military reinforcements arrived to assist efforts on Saturday to quell the wildfires that have destroyed homes and caused the evacuation of thousands of people across Nova Scotia.
China's military rebuked the United States and Canada for 'deliberately provoking risk' after the countries' navies staged a rare joint sailing through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi submitted his paperwork on Friday to enter the Ontario Liberal leadership race, a campaign spokesperson told CTV News Ottawa.
A fishing excursion ended in tragedy on Saturday when four children died in a village in northeastern Quebec, provincial police said. Authorities said they were still searching for a missing man in his 30s who was a member of the fishing party and remained unaccounted for.
A marine conservation charity and Inuit hunters are praising cruise operators for agreeing to avoid a Nunavut waterway where thousands of narwhal migrate each summer.
Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country's air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage.
Hong Kong police detained eight people, including activists and artists, on the eve of the 34th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown, a move that signals the city's shrinking freedom of expression.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Serbia's capital on Saturday for a fifth time in a month, following two mass shootings that shook the nation, even as the country's populist president rejected any responsibility for the crisis and ignored the protesters' demands to step down.
Despite a dire warning from the United Nations chief that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees "is on the verge of financial collapse," donors at a pledging conference on Friday provided just US$107 million in new funds -- significantly less than the US$300 million it needs to keep helping millions of people.
India's prime minister had been scheduled to inaugurate an electrical semi-high-speed train equipped with a safety feature - another step in the modernization of an antiquated railway that is the lifeline of the world's most populous nation.
Amid plates of sliced pork, statement-making leather ensembles and piles of political T-shirts, eight Republican presidential hopefuls descended on Iowa to pitch themselves to voters and, in Mike Pence's case, hop on a motorcycle.
Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canada is committed to the support of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, and is reinforcing its military presence in the region.
Jenny Kwan has been outspoken against human-rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party and often advocates for the country's Uyghur Muslim minority. The Hong Kong-born member of Parliament said in an interview with The Canadian Press that that's what made her an 'evergreen' target of the Chinese government.
New study finds increase in antipsychotic drugs use in long-term care homes across Canada, despite no significant increase in behavioural symptoms – something that may expose a potential area of concern for quality of care, researchers say.
The number of people in Canada with inflammatory bowel disease is increasing rapidly and is expected to grow to 470,000 by 2035, according to a new report from Crohn's and Colitis Canada.
Racial bias built into a common medical test for lung function is likely leading to fewer Black patients getting care for breathing problems, a study published Thursday suggests.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company, which has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since billionaire Elon Musk acquired it in October.
Deep in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country's oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans' hominin ancestors. The find announced Thursday would drag the dawn of Greek archaeology back by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe. The oldest, in Spain, dates to more than a million years ago.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, director Christopher Nolan offers a guide to his favourite formats, explaining why it matters and even where he likes to sit so that audiences don't feel like they need a film school degree (or one in theoretical physics) before settling on a theatre.
Walt Disney's Pixar Animation Studios has eliminated 75 positions including those of two executives behind box office disappointment 'Lightyear,' sources said on Saturday, the first significant job cuts at the studio in a decade.
Air Canada says travellers should be prepared for further flight disruptions as it works to return service to normal following a technical malfunction Thursday.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the process to sell the Ottawa Senators is moving forward as "quickly as possible," and the New York-based company overseeing the sale is advising to "expect a very good outcome in the next few weeks."
Bianca Andreescu was eliminated from the French Open after losing to Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, in the third round on Saturday.
Rafael Nadal is expected to need about five months to recover from arthroscopic surgery on his left hip, a timeline that likely would keep him out for the rest of this season.
America apparently needs more car seats. So, when Volkswagen unveiled the ID. Buzz, a retro-styled electric van, last year, it noted that the version for the North American market would be longer and would have three rows of seats.
