Canada has international commitments to patrol international waters
China claims a big part of international waters as their own so to legitimize their claim they are dumping sand in parts of the ocean to create islands and they defend it
Defending against international patrols is what these spats you see are
I'm not following this closely at the moment, but I generally assume I'm not getting the full story whenever I see politically convenient narratives forming.
Some countries (such as Canada) tend to err on the side of caution in terms of not causing escalation or an international incident.
Others (such as China , Russia, N Korea) - knowing this - are slowly pushing towards "how much can we get away with, and if there's an incident we'll spin it to blame the other guy".
China has long been trying to expand their borders beyond internationally recognised territory, and rankles at other countries being in that air/sea space prevention them for just saying "this is mine now".
Passive-aggressive behavior is becoming actually-aggressive behaviour, likely resulting in either an incident where it results in lives lost either because it actually damages an aircraft or somebody shoots back, like what happened with Russia in Turkey.
I agree that China's claims in the region are incorrect, and it's bullying its neighbors. But it's a little silly to say that Canada is erring on the side of caution, when we're the one with a military helicopter 10 000 km from home.
It's a little like getting in someone's face, saying "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you" and then complaining that they spat on you when they blow a raspberry.