MP Urges Ottawa to Condemn Hong Kong’s Proposed Law That Suppresses Democracy

Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong is calling on the federal government to condemn proposed legislation in Hong Kong that he says, if enacted, would allow the communist regime to further suppress free speech and democratic expressions. Article 23, outlined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law enacted after its handover from British rule in 1997, mandated that Hong Kong write its own national security legislation. The proposed national security law outlined in Article 23 seeks to establish five offences: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference. However, concerns over the law’s potential use for suppressing basic rights led to a massive protest in 2003. This led to the Hong Kong government withdrawing the proposal in September 2003, and further developments stalled, until recently....