There’s a big brouhaha going on about Ontario Liberal candidate Ben Chin, running in the Toronto Danforth by-election.

I personally don’t know what Ben Chin’s background is, but in the interest of fairness, I thought I’d post this, sent in from a reader:

Ben’s father was a diplomat (posted in Ottawa in the early 70’s). on a visit to korea to see his dying mother, he was incarcerated by the Korean CIA and accused of being a communist because he advised the president to free some democracy activists who were being held as political prisoners. after being freed, he was essentially placed under house arrest. the KCIA visited Ben’s school and he was told they weren’t going to let him continue there. he was given a student visa to canada, and when his father was allowed to travel again, his parents joined him here.


Jason Cherniak and Derek Raymaker have well written posts on the race.