Trudeau says Canada won’t cave to China
Ex-ministers, deputies and a former hostage urge Trudeau to budge
Former federal officials engaged in back-channel diplomacy in attempt to gain release of detained Canadians,
OTTAWA— Former top officials from Canada travelled to China last November in an attempt to free two Canadians detained there, the Star has learned.
The “bipartisan and non-partisan” effort to win the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor was part of a back-channel diplomatic effort at finding a compromise that its organizer, Gordon Houlden, believes must continue.
Houlden, the director of the University of Alberta’s China Institute, was among a group of academics joined by former Conservative cabinet ministers John Baird and Ted Menzies, former Canadian ambassador Rob Wright, former Liberal justice minister Allan Rock and former deputy foreign affairs minister Len Edwards.
They met, with the knowledge of the Trudeau government, over several days with current and former Chinese Communist Party officials in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
The unofficial delegation was not paid for by the Canadian government, although Canadian officials did provide a briefing to its members prior to their departure, said another source who spoke only on background.
The delegates later told Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, that China would release the two men if Canada released Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive arrested in Canada following an extradition request from the United States. Kovrig and Spavor were arrested just days after Meng was detained in Vancouver in December 2018.
Houlden, a former Canadian foreign service officer, confirmed the details Thursday in an interview with the Star, just hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flatly rejected appeals by another group of prominent Canadians to drop the Meng extradition case to secure the men’s freedom.
“There aren’t a lot of options other than dialogue right now,” said Houlden. “I’d like to see a resumption of dialogue before we are hemmed in too much or the Chinese hem us in too much.”
Houlden said there were signals last fall that the Chinese were willing to compromise: The day his group left Chengdu for Beijing, China announced it would lift import restrictions it had slapped on Canadian pork and beef.
But Houlden said the tough talk by Chinese and Canadian officials in public statements in the past week could now make compromise difficult, even though dialogue “offers the best prospect for an exit.”
He also rejected calls by Conservatives for Trudeau to punish China. “It will be hard to out-sanction China,” he said. “They’ve got a bigger stick and bigger levers.”
On Thursday, Trudeau said his government has “a range of options and measures” it is considering, but would not say what his next move might be.
The prime minister did not deny that the justice minister has a legal power to drop the case against Meng, but he said giving into China’s pressure tactics to get Kovrig and Spavor released would be “absolutely unacceptable.”
Trudeau said that would put Canadians abroad “in danger” by allowing China and other countries to think they could get away with “randomly arresting” Canadians whenever they want.
“We cannot allow political pressures or random arrests of Canadian citizens to influence the functioning of our justice system,” he said.
As for those advocating in favour of a deal, “I respect these individuals but they are wrong in their approach,” Trudeau told reporters.
That was in response to a letter from 19 prominent Canadians, who cited a May 22 legal opinion that said the government can and should release Meng now, and need not wait for years for the extradition case to wend through the courts.
The signatories included Allan Rock, Rob Wright and Len Edwards, who went on the November trip to China. Rock declined to comment Thursday.
Another signatory, Yves Fortier, an international arbitrator and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, said Trudeau’s statement closes an avenue.
“The decision rests with the PM. End of story, as far as we are concerned,” Fortier told the Star.
But in an interview with the CBC, Kovrig’s wife said the letter was not a wasted effort because it has created a more “sophisticated” understanding about the Canadian legal environment, and Canadians now know that the minister has the lawful authority to withdraw the Meng extradition.
“The question then becomes should that authority be exercised,” Vina Nadjibulla said.
“We’re now having a real conversation about the complexities of this case,” she said. “The government has to exercise political judgment in finding a way forward and not just say the rule of law prohibits us from doing anything.”
Nadjibulla had released the legal opinion by lawyer Brian Greenspan, which was commissioned by Rock and former Supreme Court judge Louise Arbour, who is a past UN human rights commissioner and past head of the International Crisis Group, the research group for which Kovrig worked.
This week, after months of denying any connection, China’s Foreign Ministry publicly cited that same legal opinion and Kovrig’s wife’s statements, and linked the fates of the two men to Meng’s release.
“Such options are within the rule of law and could open up space for resolution to the situation of the two Canadians,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.
When Greenspan learned in an interview with the Star that China had relied on his work to call Canada out, he said his legal advice was “never meant to weaponize anyone.
“It was meant to provide an accurate assessment of what options were available to Canada,” he said.
Trudeau’s refusal to negotiate with China for the detainees’ freedom is the same stance he took in 2016 when he refused to pay a ransom for Canadians captured by a terrorist group in the Philippines. Two Canadian men were subsequently killed.
The latest group of prominent Canadians to call for Meng’s release included Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats — former ministers, deputy ministers, ambassadors, foreign policy advisers and academics.
All urged the Trudeau government to heed the advice to release Meng in exchange for the release of the two men.
Among the signatories was Robert Fowler, a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations who was himself kidnapped in Africa in 2008.
The group’s letter, which was obtained by the Star, said the signatories acknowledge “it does not sit well with anyone to yield to bullying or blackmail.” But they said resisting doesn’t guarantee anyone’s future safety either.
“China might well decide that next time it will need to escalate by detaining more than two Canadians,” they wrote.
More broadly, they say the Meng Wanzhou saga has undermined the Liberal government’s ability to vigorously criticize China for its actions in Hong Kong or for domestic human rights violations elsewhere in the country. “In short, Canada’s foreign policy is also being held hostage.” But Trudeau was unmoved. “It is not just the two Michaels who are at question here — it is every Canadian who travels in China or anywhere else overseas,” he said.
Trudeau said the government is aware of its discretion in law.
“There is and has been from the very beginning an element of that that involves input from the justice minister at the appropriate time,” he said.
However the prime minister repeatedly referred the need to respect the “independence” of Canada’s justice system, and Canada’s international treaty obligations with the U.S.
Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Trudeau should get tougher on China, but also said the prime minister should not intervene in the Meng extradition case.
“I don’t believe setting aside the rule of law is an appropriate response to two Canadians who are detained illegally,” he said. “I don’t believe it would leave Canadians who are around the world in a very secure position if hostile governments or hostile organizations around the world know that a government would entertain that type of policy.”
“We cannot allow political pressures or random arrests of Canadian citizens to influence the functioning of our justice system.”
JUSTIN TRUDEAU PRIME MINISTER