Han Dong (politician)

Han Peng Dong (born c. 1977) is a Canadian politician who is serving as the member of parliament (MP) for Don Valley North. Sitting as an independent, Dong was elected to the House of Commons in 2019 as a member of the Liberal Party. He previously served as the member of provincial parliament (MPP) for Trinity—Spadina from 2014 to 2018, with the Ontario Liberal Party. In March 2023, Dong stepped down from the Liberal caucus amidst allegations that he advised the Chinese consul general in Toronto against the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and helped the consulate interfere in the 2019 federal election.

Background
Han Peng Dong was born in Shanghai. He moved to Toronto with his family when he was 13 and they settled in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. He lives in Toronto with his wife Sophie and their two children.

Dong worked as marketing director of Chianti Foods and then with the non-profit Canada Shanghai Business Association. Since making the switch to politics, he spent nine years at Queen's Park serving as Ontario Liberal cabinet minister Gerry Phillips's MPP liaison, and most recently as a senior adviser of community outreach under then Citizenship and Immigration Minister Michael Coteau.

Member of Provincial Parliament (2014–2018)
Dong ran in the 2014 provincial election as the Ontario Liberal candidate in the riding of Trinity—Spadina. He defeated New Democrat incumbent Rosario Marchese by 9,175 votes.

He was Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy; Vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs; member of the Select Committee on Sexual Violence and Harassment; member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts; member of the Standing Committee on Estimates. He also served as the Chair of The Cabinet Committee of Legislations and Regulations.

In February 2016, he introduced a private member's bill to license and regulate the Ontario home inspection industry, which prompted the Ontario Liberal government to draft its own government legislation for that purpose.

In March 2017 Dong introduced another private member's bill, the Reliable Elevators Act, setting time limits on repairs of elevators in residential buildings. The bill passed second reading but did not receive royal assent. Dong noted the hardship out of service elevators posed to the elderly, and to parents whose children required strollers.

In the 2018 provincial election, Dong was defeated by New Democratic candidate Chris Glover in the redistributed riding of Spadina—Fort York.

Municipal
Dong registered as a candidate in the 2018 Toronto municipal election, to represent Ward 20 on Toronto City Council. After the number of wards in the city was reduced from 47 to 25, Dong did not refile his candidacy by the September 21, 2018, deadline and was thus deemed to have withdrawn.

Member of Parliament (2019–present)
On July 4, 2019, Dong confirmed his candidacy for the federal Liberal nomination in Don Valley North following the retirement of incumbent MP Geng Tan. Dong was elected to Parliament in the October 2019 federal election.

Dong was re-elected as the MP for Don Valley North in the September 2021 election.

Dong currently serves as the co-chair Canada-China Legislative Association. Dong is also a member of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills, and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, and a member of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics.

Chinese government interference
On February 24, 2023, Global News reported that its intelligence sources with knowledge of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) affairs reported that Dong was an alleged "witting affiliate" in China's election interference networks. Unspecified sources claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and senior Liberal party officials ignored CSIS warnings about Dong, which has been denied by Trudeau.

The same article also claimed that a "Liberal insider" and former Ontario MPP Michael Chan had possibly arranged Tan's ouster in Don Valley North in favour of Dong in advance of the 2019 federal election because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was unhappy with Tan. Chan, Dong, and the Chinese embassy denied the accusations, with Dong describing the leaks as "seriously inaccurate". Dong and the Liberal Party also said that his 2019 nomination victory had followed all of the party's rules. According to an anonymous intelligence official and intelligence documents viewed by Global News, CSIS had also been investigating Dong due to an alleged meeting between Dong and a senior official from the CCP's United Front Work Department in New York state.

Dong has stated that he would welcome investigations against himself to clear his name but denies the need for a public inquiry. In response to these allegations, Trudeau has also rejected these allegations as "irresponsible" and a result of anti-Asian racism against Dong. He also stressed that Dong is unquestionably loyal to Canada.

In March 2023, he said that he was yet to be contacted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Elections Canada, or CSIS concerning the allegations, and that he wanted the truth to come out.

On March 22, 2023, additional reporting from Global News, based on two national security sources, said that in February 2021, Dong had reached out to the Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Toronto to discuss the detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. According to the sources, Dong told Han Tao, the consul-general, that their release should be delayed, that their release could benefit the Conservative Party of Canada, and for China to make concessions to Canada in the ongoing detention dispute. In a statement, Dong said that although he had spoken to the consul-general, he had not initiated it, and he had not suggested delaying the release of the Spavor and Kovrig, instead calling for their release. The Prime Minister's Office said it was not aware of the meeting until Dong told the PMO after media questions, and that Dong was not used as a diplomatic backchannel. On the same day, Dong announced that he would be leaving the Liberal caucus and sitting as an independent to work on clearing his name without disrupting government business and to avoid a "conflict of duty" by remaining on the government benches.

On March 23, 2023, The Globe and Mail, citing a senior government source, reported that the Trudeau government had reviewed the CSIS transcript in question and determined that there was no "actionable evidence" and that it was unable to draw the conclusion that Dong had sought to have the Two Michaels kept in detention for political reasons. The same day, Dong, as an independent MP, voted for a New Democratic Party motion calling for a public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections that passed with the support of the opposition parties and which was opposed by Liberal MPs.

Following the allegations, Dong said he had retained a lawyer and intended to sue Global News for defamation. Global News stood by its reporting, with its editor-in-chief saying Global follows "a rigorous set of journalistic principles and practices". A few days later, lawyers for Dong issued a libel notice demanding a retraction and apology from Global News, saying that if Global News failed to do so in seven days Dong would file a lawsuit. In April, Dong filed a defamation lawsuit against Global News and some of its reporters. Following his review, Special Rapporteur David Johnston said that allegations that Dong had told Chinese officials to extend the detention of Kovrig and Spavor were false. Johnston reviewed documents but did not speak to Dong when preparing his report, saying he decided against reaching out to Dong out of respect for the ongoing defamation lawsuit. Dong said he was vindicated by the report, saying that he wanted to rejoin the Liberal Party caucus. In June, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said he was conducting a review to determine whether the party would readmit Dong to caucus, and that he would be reviewing other intelligence materials, as Johnston's report was just a "starting point".

In September 2023, following the announcement of a public inquiry into foreign election interference, LeBlanc said that he had not had an opportunity to conduct an internal review of Dong's situation. He said that he would be meeting with Dong "in the coming days" and would provide a recommendation to Trudeau "at the right moment".

In December 2023, Chinese dissident and Uyghur rights groups questioned their safety to testify at a planned public inquiry on foreign interference with Dong present.

In April 2024, Dong testified in a federal inquiry that international students from China were bused in to vote for him in a Liberal Party election. The same month, The Globe and Mail reported that Dong was tipped off about CSIS surveillance of him in 2019.