Delegation to push for release of detained Canadians in China
OTTAWA — The Liberal senator leading the Canadian parliamentary delegation travelling to China says his group will tread carefully in calling for the release of two Canadians detained there.
Sen. Joseph Day said that engaging directly with Chinese lawmakers is crucial but his group doesn’t want to do anything to hurt Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
“We will first of all do nothing to harm their situation, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that they’re treated fairly and hopefully the result of — indirectly — of our visit will be that the judicial and executive branches in China decide to release these two gentlemen,” Day told The Canadian Press
The two countries may have different views about what constitutes the rule of law but both need to find common ground on some basics, he said.
“Sometimes little expressions like ‘rule of law’ take on different meaning for different people. We go back to the fundamentals,” the New Brunswick senator said. “One of the fundamentals is if they’re being detained they have a right to representation. They have a right to know what’s being alleged against them, and how they’re going to defend themselves.”
So far, none of that has been afforded to Kovrig and Spavor, each of whom has had only one visit by the Canadian ambassador in China since being arrested last month. The detentions are in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States. China has said they’ve both been arrested on national security grounds.
China’s chief prosecutor, Zhang Jun, told a briefing on Thursday that “without a doubt” Kovrig and Spavor broke the country’s laws and are being investigated.
The Chinese government, including its ambassador to Canada, as well as the country’s state-controlled media have sharply criticized the Canadian legal system. Ambassador Lu Shaye has called Meng’s detention “a miscarriage of justice” and said it has “no basis in international law.”
Canada has an extradition treaty with the U.S., and Meng has been released on bail after an open court hearing in Vancouver.
Day said part of his delegation’s task is to explain such things to Chinese lawmakers.
“We have our work cut out for us in terms of explaining our system and how it’s different.”
The purpose of the trip is to deepen Canada’s trading relationship with China in an attempt to reduce Canada’s reliance on the U.S., he said.