In the lead-up to Canda’s April 2025 federal election, the country’s Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force determined that PRC authorities targeted Joe Tay, a Conservative Party candidate for Parliament known for his opposition to Beijing’s policies. In December 2024, Hong Kong police issued a warrant and placed a bounty on Tay as one of six overseas democracy activists accused of violating Hong Kong’s national security law. In addition, Canadian intelligence identified a coordinated online repression campaign designed to discredit Tay and suppress information about his candidacy. The campaign involved amplification of narratives about the arrest warrant and his political competence across platforms including Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, RedNote, and Douyin. Intelligence officials also observed keyword filtering of Tay’s name in Chinese characters on PRC-based platforms. Canadian authorities classified the effort as a transnational repression operation, noting that one Facebook account involved was historically linked to PRC authorities in Hong Kong. While the campaign had limited engagement, officials flagged it as a deliberate and persistent attempt to manipulate voter perceptions in a diaspora-rich riding with a history of foreign interference. Canada describes the SITE Task Force as the country’s “principal mechanism to monitor the threat from hostile state interference during elections”.