MPs, senators to push for release of imprisoned Canadians during trip to China
OTTAWA — A group of Canadian lawmakers travelling to China this weekend will use the trip to push for the release of two Canadians detained there since last month, says a Conservative MP in the delegation.
That is something all Canadian travellers to China ought to be doing, says the boss of one of the imprisoned Canadians.
Michael Kovrig, a diplomat on a leave from Global Affairs Canada and employed in Beijing by the International Crisis Group, and the entrepreneur Michael Spavor were arrested last month in China. The arrests are widely viewed as Chinese retaliation for Canada’s arrest of high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, by the RCMP in Vancouver at the request of the United States.