China corruption suspect's daughter no longer president of B.C.’s Young Liberals of Canada

 

 

BY SAM COOPER, THE PROVINCE MAY 28, 2015

 

 

Linda Ching, former president of B.C.’s Young Liberals of Canada, is pictured earlier this year alongside Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau in Vancouver.

Linda Ching, the daughter of prominent Vancouver developer and China corruption suspect Michael Ching, is no longer president of B.C.’s Young Liberals of Canada.

Michael Ching (also known as Mo Yeung Ching), is wanted in Beijing as Muyang Cheng, the Mandarin version of his name, for alleged graft and corruption. Lawyers for Ching, 45, have denied all allegations.

A new B.C. Young Liberal president, Dario Garousian, was named at a party meeting this week.

In interviews, several LPC sources told The Province that in late 2012 then 16-year-old Linda Ching quickly rose to the top of the party’s youth wing, backed by former Richmond Liberal MP and cabinet minister Raymond Chan, a key figure in the party’s B.C. power structure and ethnic voting campaigns.

Michael Ching, who has donated thousands to the LPC and leader Justin Trudeau, the B.C. Liberals, and smaller amounts to Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and the federal Conservatives, is reportedly a close friend and backer of Chan’s.

In 2008 when Chan lost his seat to Conservative Alice Wong, Michael Ching faded into the background for a few years, one party source said.

But around 2012, Michael Ching and Raymond Chan emerged as leading fundraisers for the new LPC leader Justin Trudeau. About the same time Raymond Chan actively promoted Linda Ching as a rising political star in the party, sources said. Linda Ching and Raymond Chan could not be reached for interviews.

Michael Ching has said through his lawyers that he will not take questions from media. According to Linda Ching’s own claims, after working on Chan’s 2008 campaign she soon became leader of several party organizations and the Tru-Youths United, a politically-active group of Chinese youth linked to Raymond Chan.

“In 2011, interim leader Bob Rae recruited Honourable Raymond Chan to help rebuild the party and I have been part of the team since,” Linda Ching wrote in the 2013 National Women’s Liberal Commission Newsletter. “A year later when Justin Trudeau announced his candidacy in 2012, I was invited to introduce him (at) his first event in British Columbia. Since then I have helped Justin build an incredibly strong campaign team of ... over one hundred active youth volunteers and founded a youth group, Tru-Youths United … We signed up over one thousand supporters for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal leadership campaign … at the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown alone, our 40 volunteers signed up over 200 supporters for Justin. Then for Justin’s celebration fundraising dinner on June 2, 2013, I was presented with the opportunity to act as one of two Masters of Ceremonies for the entire event.”

Party sources said that Linda Ching was elected president of YLC-BC on a slate backed by Raymond Chan.

“I know Linda Ching fairly well,” one source said. “She ran at the end of 2012 for a VP position on the Young Liberals executive and she ran for that with the national Young Liberals president. He was the B.C. Young Liberal president before that, so Linda succeeded him.”

Interviews, online accounts, and photographs show that since 2012 Linda Ching has rubbed elbows with elite figures in the LPC, Vision Vancouver and B.C. Liberal parties, at private fundraisers and political events.

Olivier Duchesneau, spokesman for the LPC said that Linda Ching stepped down as YLC-BC president at the end of her term as dictated by the YLC-BC’s constitution and the move had nothing to do with questions around her father’s connections to the party.

scooper@theprovince.com