Chinese officials featured at Canadian community event against foreign agent registry in Canada

MP Chandra Arya, Senator Yuen Pau Woo and Senator Victor Oh also participated in the conference in person or via Zoom.

China’s top diplomat in Montreal attended a Chinese Canadian community conference against Canada’s proposed legislation of a foreign agent registry and delivered a keynote speech to the audience, according to several Chinese-language media in Canada. 

Dai Yuming (戴玉明), Chinese Consul-General in Montreal, was one of the prominent speakers at the ‘Reflection Forum of the 100th Anniversary of the Enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada’, an event that attracted some 200 people on May 28, 2023. 

Chinese diplomat lectured Chinese Canadians on a Canadian issue, and Canadian politicians echoed his viewpoint

From left to right: China’s Montreal deputy Consul-General Wang Hong (王红), community leader Cao Shoukang (曹寿康), China’s Montreal Consul-General Dai Yuming (戴玉明), and Canadian Liberal MP Chandra Arya. 

Although the conference aimed to reflect on Canada’s historical Chinese Exclusion Act, attendees there repeatedly linked the now-defunct Act to the current affairs in Canada, and talked about Canada’s proposed foreign agent registry, which Senator Yuen Pau Woo (胡元豹) frequently describes as ‘racist’ and a ‘modern form of the Chinese Exclusion Act’.