Federal leaders vow to bring ‘Two Michaels’ home as both mark 1,000 days in prison - National

Federal leaders vow to bring ‘Two Michaels’ home as both mark 1,000 days in prison - National

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With Sunday marking the 1,000 days since Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were first detained in China, several federal leaders took time out of the campaign trail to lambast the Chinese government — and renew calls for the communist country to allow the Canadians to come home.

During a campaign stop in Ontario, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau acknowledged the day as being difficult for the relatives of the two Michaels.

Trudeau said he had spoken with their families and that he would “not rest” until the two Michaels, who were first detained in December of 2018 shortly after the RCMP’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, return home.

2:32 Family, friends hold ‘March for the Michaels’ Family, friends hold ‘March for the Michaels’

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“There are also a lot of things we are doing in a less visible way with the American government, with partners and allies, and indeed putting pressure directly on the Chinese government as well. We will not rest until the two Michael’s are once again home with their families.”

The other federal leaders, including New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, remarked on the imprisonment of the two Michaels as well.

1:33 O’Toole discusses sanctions on China as 2 Michaels detained for 1,000 days O’Toole discusses sanctions on China as 2 Michaels detained for 1,000 days

Speaking at an event in B.C. earlier Sunday, O’Toole promised to “stand up” for Canadian citizens as opposed to what his party described as a softer approach taken by the Liberals.

In his election platform, O’Toole pledges to negotiate new trade agreements with nations in the Indo-Pacific and Africa so Canada doesn’t have to rely as heavily on China, as well as work with international allies in hopes of “decoupling” their supply chains from the Chinese regime.

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“I call it a serious approach where we will stand up for our citizens, our economic interests and our values as a country,” said O’Toole.

“And I’ve often said China might be much larger in terms of population and economy, but they can learn a lot from us with respect to engagement for human rights, dignity and the rule of law.”

Along with the promise of added sanctions against China, the Conservatives have also promised to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G infrastructure.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Sunday during a stop in the nation’s capital that he could not imagine what the past 1,000 days have been like for the two Michaels, their families and loved ones.

0:49 NDP Leader Singh renews call to ‘do everything possible’ to secure release of 2 Michaels NDP Leader Singh renews call to ‘do everything possible’ to secure release of 2 Michaels

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“A thousand days in conditions that have been pretty horrible, not having access to human rights, not having access to the same dignity that you would expect in a criminal justice system here in Canada,” said Singh.

“We’re going to renew our calls that we’ve got to do everything possible, everything we can, working with our international allies to continue to apply pressure on China to secure the release of these Canadians, of our fellow Canadians.”

Read more: Supporters for two detained Michaels in China march in support of their freedom

The Liberals have faced criticism over what they described as Kovrig and Spavor’s “arbitrary” detentions. Last month, both men were convicted of espionage by courts in China. Spavor was handed an 11-year sentence, while Kovrig has not yet been sentenced.

Canadian officials widely believe their detentions were done in retaliation over the RCMP’s arrest of Meng in December of 2018, while she was passing through Vancouver’s airport.

11:51 Would he support a Conservative minority? One-on-one with Jagmeet Singh Would he support a Conservative minority? One-on-one with Jagmeet Singh

The arrest was made on an extradition request from the United States, who wanted Meng to be tried for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

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On Sunday, crowds of supporters were set to march in Ottawa and across the country in support of freeing both Kovrig and Spavor.

China’s ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu told the Canadian Press that the protesters were harming relations between the two countries.

“Recently, we have noted that a small number of people here in Canada have been hyping the so-called 1,000 days of the detention of the two Michaels, who are Canadian citizens, making unwarranted accusations against China’s handling of the cases.”

2:38 Marking 1,000 days since Canadians Michael Spavor, Michael Kovrig detained in China Marking 1,000 days since Canadians Michael Spavor, Michael Kovrig detained in China

Canadian officials were expected to also march in several places across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla said that it was an “extremely difficult milestone,” but still one they wanted to mark in a way to honour the “strength and resilience” of both Michaels.

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“In one of his letters, Michael had said that we don’t choose our circumstances. But we do have a choice in how we handle ourselves in those circumstances. And for 1,000 days, Michael has endured this injustice and his detention with remarkable strength, dignity, and character.”

Rally marks 1,000 days since China detained two Canadians amid Huawei dispute

Supporters of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor march to mark 1,000 days since the Canadians were arrested in China, during a protest in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Blair Gable

Sept 5 (Reuters) - Supporters of two Canadians accused of spying and held in prison in China for 1,000 days rallied on Sunday, demanding their release in a case that has soured diplomatic ties between Ottawa and Beijing.

Businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig were detained in December 2018, shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL) on a warrant from the United States.

Last month, a Chinese court sentenced Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage. Meng is waiting verdict on her U.S. extradition request after the hearing wrapped up in a British Columbia court last month. read more

Several hundred people gathered at a park in Ottawa, with some wearing white shirts printed “March for the Michaels,” “7,000 steps for freedom,” carrying banner “#bringthemhome.

“Every day in his cell, Michael Kovrig walks 7,000 steps to keep his mind and body healthy. Michael Spavor uses yoga, meditation and exercises to stay strong,” the families wrote on a Facebook page seeking support for the event.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has called a snap election for Sept. 20, is trailing his main opponent, Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, who has demanded a tougher approach against China. read more

“We have to deal with the Communist leadership in China, as it is not as Mr. Trudeau may have hoped it was. He’s always been out of step with respect to our interests and our values. So I’ve said Canada will be a leader on human rights again,” O’Toole told reporters in Vancouver on Saturday.

Trudeau, when asked about criticism that his government had not done enough to free the two Michaels, said on Sunday when dealing with citizens in trouble abroad, “we use all the tools at our disposal, usually not shouting in the public square.”

He said the government over the past 1,000 days had put forward all the different range of tools to put pressure on the Chinese government to return the two men.

“We will not rest until the two Michaels are once again home with their families,” he told reporters.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, who joined the rally, said in statement that years have been cruelly stolen from both men and their families.

“This must stop. Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor must come home,” the statement added.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular press briefing in Beijing on Monday that Garneau’s statement was a “blatant interference of China’s judicial sovereignty”.

Reporting by David Ljunggren and Denny Thomas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Kovrig, Spavor supporters march in support of freeing the prisoners, as China objects

OTTAWA – As Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor mark 1,000 days in separate Chinese prisons, their supporters took to the streets of Ottawa and beyond on Sunday to push for their freedom.

Around 150 people gathered in the capital to walk roughly an-hour-and-a-half to a park near Parliament Hill. It was intended replicate the 7,000 steps Kovrig has tried to walk every day in his cramped jail cell to maintain his physical and mental well-being, along with a strict regime of reading and meditation.

“One thousand days is a long time and it wears on us, particularly our father,” said Paul Spavor, brother to Michael Spavor, who was among the family members of the two men who led Sunday’s march, holding a red banner with “.bringthemhome” emblazoned in white.

“We felt it important to mark this day, and Michael has come to understand the global profile of the whole situation, so he’s become a little more willing to have us speak.”

China’s ambassador to Canada said the marchers and others are harming relations between the two countries by hyping the milestone with unwarranted accusations against his government.

That left the political stalemate between Canada and China unbroken ahead of Sunday’s marches, which were expected to take place throughout Canada and around the world and are shaping up to be the largest public outpourings of support for the men who have come to be known in Canada and abroad as “the two Michaels.”

Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave to an international organization, and Spavor, an entrepreneur who tried to forge ties to North Korea, were arrested in apparent retaliation for the RCMP’s arrest of Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou on Dec. 1, 2018 as she was transiting through Vancouver airport.

The Mounties were acting on an American extradition request because the U.S. wants to prosecute Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Nine days after Meng was detained, Kovrig and Spavor were arrested in China. Both have since been convicted of spying in closed Chinese courts – a process that Canada and dozens of allies say amounts to arbitrary detention on bogus charges in a closed system of justice with no accountability.

China has denied that and accused Canada of being a U.S. government lapdog, and has repeatedly demanded Meng’s immediate release. China says the U.S. is simply trying to prevent Huawei from asserting its dominance in the international telecommunications market.

Kovrig and Spavor have languished in prison, while Meng’s extradition hearing in the British Columbia Supreme Court has been unfolding at epic length, fuelled by the legal duelling between a large team of Meng’s lawyers and Canadian federal Justice Department counsel acting on behalf of the U.S.

The extradition hearing ended in August, and Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes is expected to render her decision sometime this fall, but it could be appealed, prolonging the imprisonment of the two Michaels.

The men’s relatives and supporters are pushing for some sort of political resolution that could bring them home. And they are taking to the streets to make their point.

“It’s an extremely difficult milestone, but one that we want to mark in this way, in part, to honour the strength and resilience that Michael and Michael Spavor have shown,” Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla said in an interview.

“In one of his letters, Michael had said that we don’t choose our circumstances. But we do have a choice in how we handle ourselves in those circumstances. And for 1,000 days, Michael has endured this injustice and his detention with remarkable strength, dignity, and character.”

Among those who joined in Sunday’s march were the ambassadors to Germany, the European Union, Australia, as well as Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and Marc Garneau, a Liberal candidate and Canada’s foreign affairs minister.

Garneau wouldn’t offer specifics of how Canada is trying to free both men, but said the country continues to send the message they are being arbitrarily detained and should be released, and that it will keep working with the United States on the matter.

“The point is that whole process that has been going on for the last 1,000 days is actually moving in a positive direction,” he said.

“We talk to all the people that we are dealing with and so I wouldn’t say it otherwise. We are making progress, and we will continue to work until we get them free.”

Spavor and Kovrig are not allowed visits from family or lawyers, except in the case of their separate trials earlier this summer at which both were convicted. Spavor was later handed an 11-year sentence, while Kovrig is still waiting. Canadian diplomats see the men roughly once a month in a video link; in-person visits ended in early 2020 and were suspended for 10 months because Chinese officials said they wanted to control the spread of COVID-19 in prisons.

Kovrig was a Canadian diplomat who took a leave of absence to work for the International Crisis Group, a non-government agency. In addition to the Ottawa march, Canadian diplomats are expected to walk in solidarity in New York, Washington, Brussels and across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Spavor’s family has kept a low public profile, preferring written statements to public interviews, while Nadjibulla went public last summer with her concerns and stepped up her public advocacy to push the Canadian and American governments to find a way to end the ongoing imprisonment of the two Michaels.

Paul Spavor said his brother spends a lot of his time imprisoned reading, doing yoga and meditating.

Cong Peiwu, China’s ambassador to Canada, said in an interview the marking of the 1,000 days has “gravely violated the norms governing international relations and international law” and noted that Meng has been under arrest in Canada even longer.

“Recently, we have noted that a small number of people here in Canada have been hyping the so-called 1,000 days of the detention of the two Michaels, who are Canadian citizens, making unwarranted accusations against China’s handling of the cases.”

Cong said his government stands by a report this week from the Global Times, a newspaper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, saying that Spavor photographed military equipment and shared the images outside the country. The report, citing unnamed sources, said Spavor shared information with Kovrig over a long period of time.

Nadjibulla reiterated her long-held view that neither Kovrig nor Spavor are spies, saying the allegation that leaked out this week has been publicized in the past. Spavor’s family and friends have said in written statements that he was doing nothing untoward in China and has been committed to building bridges with North Korea.

Nadjibulla said the next few weeks and months will be critical towards breaking the logjam. In addition to Holmes’s ruling, there will be chances for U.S. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the fall gatherings of the G20 and the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

She said the current federal election hasn’t really had any effect on the fate of the two Michaels.

“This is not a partisan issue. I have been heartened by that,” she said. “Canadians of all political persuasions, and all political leaders are united in the way they see this as an unjust, arbitrary detention and also in their call to bring them home.”

The U.S. State Department threw its backing behind Kovrig and Spavor Sunday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again calling for their release.

“The practice of arbitrarily detaining individuals to exercise leverage over foreign governments is completely unacceptable,” Blinken said in a statement. “People should never be used as bargaining chips.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2021.

With files from Stephanie Taylor.