Murder case has high-profile connections
Daughter of business mogul faces charges
The Toronto area's Chinese-Canadian community is abuzz this week after the daughter of a high-profile and politically connected local businesswoman was charged with murder along with her boyfriend.
Yun Lu “Lucy” Li, 25, and Oliver Karafa, 28, have so far eluded capture after fleeing the scene in a late-model Land Rover, say police in Hamilton, Ont.
A Vancouver man, Tyler Pratt, 39, was killed and a woman, 26, injured in the Feb. 28 shooting behind a building in an industrial part of the city.
Mother Hong Wei “Winnie” Liao runs financial-management business Respon International Group, holds a glitzy annual charity gala and seems to have ties to both local politicians and Chinese diplomats in Canada.
A photo of her shaking hands with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is featured prominently on the company's website. On a Chinese-language news site, she's featured with Doug Ford, Ontario's Conservative premier.
A 2016 media report said Liao had held fundraising events for Trudeau at a time when the Liberals faced stiff criticism over alleged cashfor-access gatherings.
Before becoming wanted on murder charges, the daughter attracted attention for much different reasons. Lucy Li is a triplet, and one of her sisters was a contestant in Miss World Toronto last year, while all three daughters appear together online modelling swimwear, lingerie and other clothes.
They have also been credited with helping found a group called Canadian Youth Funding Agency, one of the Respon charity gala's beneficiaries.
Liao could not be reached for comment by phone or text Monday. An employee at her company's office said she was travelling to Vancouver.
But in a statement issued to Chinese-language media, the suspect's family offered its deep condolences to the victims and their families.
“We are deeply shocked, disturbed and puzzled by Lucy's involvement in the unfortunate incident,” said a translated version of the statement.
In a part of the message aimed directly at Lucy Li, family members say they love her and believe in her innocence, but urge her to co-operate with the authorities.
Two sources in the Toronto-area community of mainland-Chinese immigrants say the case is being followed closely because of the mother's prominent role in that population.
“She goes everywhere. She's very high profile, since a long time ago,” said one acquaintance of Liao's, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Many people discuss and talk about her … She's very kind of powerful.”
Hamilton police have said relatively little about the shooting and could not respond to questions about it by deadline Monday.
But they have disclosed that passersby came across a woman suffering from a gunshot wound early the evening of Feb. 28 in the Stoney Creek neighbourhood. When police responded to a call about the woman, they found Pratt's body nearby, Staff Sgt. Jim Callender told reporters last week. The two victims knew each other, he said.
Callender said the suspects left the scene in what appeared to be a white, newer-model Land Rover, which police later recovered. Charges against Li and Karafa were announced four days later, but police say the pair appear to have departed the Toronto-Hamilton area.
According to Liao's acquaintance, she immigrated to Canadian about 20 years ago from China's Hunan province, settling first in the Toronto area. She built Respon, described in a 2018 promotional article as having offices in 13 cities from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver.
The firm specializes in asset allocation, family property inheritance and asset-maximization and tax strategy, becoming one of the top achievers in the London Life insurance company's Freedom 55 program, said the article.
Liao has also left at least a financial mark in the political world. A woman by her name made donations to the Liberal party totalling about $20,000 between 2014 and 2019, Elections Canada's database indicates.
A 2016 Globe and Mail article said she had held several fundraisers for Trudeau, suggesting it was part of a campaign by the party to seek donations from wealthy Chinese Canadians.
The controversy led the Liberals to institute reforms to their fundraising policies, which they say are now more transparent and accountable than those of any other party.
Liao has appeared in photographs with Han Tao, China's consul general to Toronto.
A note on the website of the country's Vancouver consulate mentions a visit by the businesswoman to the mission in 2016. It acknowledges her company's support for “overseas Chinese” groups in the area, and for promoting Chinese culture and exchanges between the Chinese community and other ethnic groups.
The triplets appear in sometimes-racy photographs together on Reddit pages, one of which has more than 90,000 followers, modelling skimpy clothing of various sorts.