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Canadian Ambassador to China Dominic Barton talks to his staff outside the Dandong city detention centre after attending the verdict hearing for Canadian businessman Michael Spavor on spying charges.
NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images
The Canadian government says it condemns the espionage conviction and 11-year prison sentence that China has handed businessman Michael Spavor as unjust and the products of a fraudulent trial.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told reporters Wednesday that Canada’s ambassadors to China and the United States remain engaged in “intense discussions” aimed at securing the release of both Mr. Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig, whose treatment by Beijing is widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request.
Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig were seized by Chinese state agents in December, 2018, shortly after Ms. Meng’s arrest at Vancouver airport. China is demanding that Canada release Ms. Meng, but the U.S. accuses her of lying to banking giant HSBC about Huawei’s business operations in Iran, putting the financial institution at risk of violating U.S. sanctions.
On Wednesday, a court in Dandong, China, ruled that Mr. Spavor was guilty of spying and illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities. He and Mr. Kovrig, who faces similar charges, have been held under harsh conditions for almost 1,000 days – measures that Canada has called “hostage diplomacy.”
Mr. Garneau said China’s behaviour in this matter is unacceptable.
Chinese court sentences Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison
“The practice of arbitrary detention, with a mock sham trial, with absolutely no transparency whatsoever and a verdict that is completely unjustified, are not acceptable in terms of international rules-based law,” he told reporters.
He said talks remain under way to free the two men but refused to discuss details, saying they must remain confidential.
In April, Canada’s ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, spent three weeks in Washington trying to enlist U.S. officials’ help in freeing Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.
China has urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene in the extradition process and send Ms. Meng home, but Mr. Trudeau has refused, saying it would put any Canadian citizen outside Canada at risk of being kidnapped by hostile states.
Canada has been looking to the United States to amend or withdraw the extradition request for Ms. Meng.
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As The Globe and Mail reported earlier this year, Mr. Barton’s confidential mission to Washington involved discussions about a possible U.S. deferred prosecution agreement for Ms. Meng.
Mr. Garneau said Mr. Barton and Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, are still engaged in talks aimed at a solution. He declined to say if they involved a swap for Ms. Meng.
“There has been considerable and intense work done by both Ambassador Barton in China and in the United States, along with Ambassador Hillman, and this work will continue to go on with the aim of arriving at the result of freeing the two Michaels,” he said.
He said Canada is continuing to put international pressure on China through a campaign launched in February. The goal is to create a global coalition against the practice of “arbitrary detention” – what others have called “hostage-taking” by sovereign countries. Mr. Garneau noted that 66 countries have signed onto the Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations.
More to come.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a Chinese court's sentencing of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage on Wednesday was 'absolutely unacceptable' and called for his immediate release. Flora Bradley-Watson reports. Reuters
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