Former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan, pictured in 2013, is suing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and unidentified employees who he says leaked classified information with the intent of harming his reputation.Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press
A former Ontario cabinet minister is suing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and unidentified employees who he alleges leaked classified information with the intent of harming his reputation.
Michael Chan alleges the anonymous employees’ actions were influenced by “a stereotypical type-casting of immigrants born in China as being somehow untrustworthy.”
Chan, a former cabinet minister in the former Ontario Liberal government and now a deputy mayor in Markham, Ont., is also suing the Crown, the attorney-general of Canada, the CSIS director, and two journalists who have written stories on Chan based on leaked classified information.
Chan says the stories inaccurately implicated him in allegations of election interference and he is seeking a total of $10 million in damages.
No statements of defence have yet been filed.
The claims have not been proven in court.