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OTTAWA - As one of Hong Kong's leading democracy advocates, Martin Lee says he's not surprised when the Chinese government tries to shut him up.

"This happens to me every time I travel," the 76-year-old Lee told The Canadian Press over the phone before he boarded a plane out of Ottawa late Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, he appeared as planned before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee to offer a briefing on the embattled democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Lee's testimony occurred after the barely concealed threats of an indignant Chinese ambassador who sent a sternly worded letter to the committee telling it to rescind his invitation.

"Obviously, it didn't work. I suppose the ambassador actually thought it would," said Lee.

No "respectable committee of Parliament," Lee said, would ever bow to the will of the Chinese government to silence him.

Lee, the veteran pro-democracy activist, was one of several people arrested in December after more than two months of demonstrations against restrictions that the Beijing government is imposing on Hong Kong's first election in 2017.

The protests paralyzed Hong Kong and gave rise to a new opposition movement that is seen by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a threat to his country's stability.

So with Lee set to testify in Ottawa on Tuesday, Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui sent a letter to the committee and the Foreign Affairs Department that essentially told Canada to butt out of China's domestic affairs. He said it would be best not to rock the boat on Canada-China relations.

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Hong Kong Activist Martin Lee Testifies In Canada's Parliament Despite China's Warning