Canada mulls expelling China diplomat for targeting lawmaker

By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s foreign minister says the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday that her department was summoning China’s ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won’t tolerate such interference. She says the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human-rights record. Chong has been critical of Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. He says the diplomat should have been expelled from Canada already.