Charges raise stakes in Canada-China conflict
Legal system is stacked against two Canadians accused of espionage in China, observers say
The formal charging on Friday of two Canadians detained in China starts them down what is likely to be the path of a show trial and a predetermined outcome, in a situation that has become all the more perilous because of the international attention it has received, observers say.
Authorities in China announced Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had been charged with crimes related to spying after more than a year and a half in detention.
Now the two will enter a legal system stacked against them, according to experts.
“Their lawyers won’t be able to have any access to the evidence, because this is classified as a national secret,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China.
Kovrig is charged on suspicion of spying for state secrets and intelligence; Spavor has been charged on suspicion of spying for a foreign entity and illegally providing state secrets.
Both men were detained shortly after the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested while transiting through Vancouver in December 2018.
The arrest was made at the request of authorities in the United States, who want her extradited to face fraud charges.
The arrest of Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Spavor, a businessman, was seen by observers as retaliation from Beijing for Meng’s arrest. The Canadian government views the detention of the two men as arbitrary.
Meng’s latest attempt to stop extradition proceedings was turned down by a British Columbia court just weeks ago.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed “disappointment” that China moved forward with the espionage charges against Kovrig and Spavor
Trudeau once again called for their release, but did not signal any change in Ottawa’s efforts to secure that outcome.
“We are using a wide range of public and private measures to ensure that everything is being done to ensure we get these Michaels home,” Trudeau told reporters in Chelsea, Que.
The Star asked the Prime Minister’s Office to provide details on those measures, and whether Trudeau intends to personally raise the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The PMO did not immediately respond to the questions.
At a news conference in Beijing on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, repeated the same phrase regarding each man and his case.
“The facts are clear and evidence solid and sufficient,” Zhao said. “The defendant should be held accountable for criminal responsibilities under the above-mentioned charge.”
Zhao also insinuated that Canada was engaged in “hostage diplomacy” after a Canadian reporter in the room asked for the Chinese government’s take on the issue, and after questions about the timing of the charges against the Canadians so soon after Meng’s court loss.
“Maybe you can ask the Canadian side about their take on ‘hostage diplomacy,’ ” he said.
Saint-Jacques said the formal charges brought against the two men are essentially a guarantee that they will be convicted.
He said it was only a matter of time before China’s authorities announced the charges and added that the two will not receive a fair trial, stressing China’s nearly 99.9 per cent conviction rate.
Beijing is likely to claim it cannot interfere with the court process, he said, which will make it more difficult to get the men back to Canada.
Kovrig and Spavor are facing sentences of 10 years to life in prison, and Saint-Jacques said he expects life sentences to be handed down.
Neither has had a consular visit in months. China blames the COVID-19 outbreak for the lack of consular access. SaintJacques said, at best, Kovrig and Spavor will eventually be able to see consular staff once a month.
When Saint-Jacques was ambassador, Canada was dealing with two other Canadians who had been arbitrarily detained by China. Kevin and Julia Garratt were arrested in 2014 and also accused of spying.
Julia was released in 2015; Kevin was deported in 2016. Saint-Jacques said he fears it won’t be as simple for Spavor and Kovrig, because China’s president appears to have taken a personal interest in the case.
“I think he has some kind of personal debt toward Ren Zhengfei (Meng’s father, who is the founder and CEO of Huawei),” Saint-Jacques said. “Therefore, it’s a lot more complicated and there’s more at stake because of the rivalry between the U.S. and China around Huawei.”
Peter Humphrey, a British man who was working as a corporate investigator when he was arrested in 2013 and convicted of illegally obtaining personal information in China, echoed Saint-Jacques’s concerns about a predetermined outcome. Humphrey said the next phase of the Kovrig-Spavor saga will be a highly scripted exercise in fake justice. Humphrey was never allowed to see the evidence against him and denies the charges of which he was convicted, for which he signed a forced confession.
“They’re pretending to be judges, prosecutors pretending to be prosecutors, and defence lawyers pretending to be defence lawyers,” Humphrey said. “The only person who is not pretending is the defendant, who is genuinely a defendant and he has not got a hope in hell of orchestrating a proper defence.”
He was not allowed to call witnesses or bring forward testimony he wished to present to the court. Humphrey said the case against the two Canadians is a political hostage-taking and the only solution will be a negotiated one.
The president and CEO of the non-profit NGO International Crisis Group, where Kovrig was working when he was detained in 2018, said in a statement Friday the charges are “baseless” and “arbitrary,” and have been since day one.
“Michael was not ‘endangering national security,’ ” Robert Malley said. “Everything he was doing was open, transparent and well known to China’s authorities.”
He said Beijing is using Kovrig as a pawn in a struggle between Canada, the U.S. and China.
“But today’s charges change nothing to our resolve to secure Michael’s release, and to our hope and expectation that he will soon be reunited with his loved ones,” he said.
Saint-Jacques accused the Liberal government of an “appeasement” strategy towards China and urged Ottawa to take stronger action to free the two men. He said Ottawa has expressed only cautious criticism of Beijing’s recent actions — the crackdown in Hong Kong, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the internment of one million ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province.
The strategy has not only failed to free Kovrig and Spavor, he said, but has failed to shield Canada from economic blowback from Beijing.
“I’ve had discussions with officials in Ottawa who say we won’t retaliate, blow for blow … (But) if you don’t react, and you lay down every time, you risk ending up as roadkill,” SaintJacques said.
“The only part of the strategy that has worked has been seeking support of like-minded allies. This has taken the Chinese by surprise. It’s something we should move to another level, to put more pressure on China.”
Saint-Jacques said there are a number of ways the Canadian government could take stronger action against China, including calling out Chinese interference in domestic affairs, expelling diplomats who put pressure on Chinese-Canadian communities, laying charges for espionage, and undertaking more stringent inspections of Chinese goods coming into Canada.
The government could also encourage businesses to diversify away from China, including to member countries of the recently concluded Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said.
Shuvaloy Majumdar, a former foreign policy adviser to Stephen Harper’s Conservative government who is now foreign policy lead at the MacdonaldLaurier Institute, agreed Ottawa should take a more aggressive approach with Beijing on behalf of the men.
“The answer is not co-operation; the answer is some form of competition,” Majumdar said. “We shouldn’t just look at the relationship bilaterally. We need to look at all tools and instruments and coalitions around the world that we can mobilize.”
He said using targeted sanctions against Chinese individuals responsible for Beijing’s recent confrontational diplomacy around the world is one step Canada could take.
Other measures include suspending the Canada-China Legislative Association, a forum for officials from the two countries to discuss issues of mutual importance, and reviewing all investment in Canada linked to China’s government, he said.
In an opinion piece published Friday by the Star, China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, asserted that Canada was caught in the middle of a squabble between his country and the United States. Meng Wanzhou’s arrest, the ambassador wrote, was a “grave political incident concocted by the U.S.” to damage Huawei.
While Meng’s legal battle continues, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled last month that the fraud charges levelled against her in the U.S. would be a crime in Canada — moving Meng one step closer to extradition. Meng is accused of circumventing U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Cong made a similar argument Thursday in an interview with Reuters.
He also argued China would never meddle in Canadian affairs — which runs counter to the position of two successive Canadian governments, the country’s two top intelligence agencies, former senior intelligence officials, and a recent report by Parliament’s national security committee.