Kovrig and Spavor Return to Canada After Release in China | Politics News

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The two Canadians held by Beijing for more than 1,000 days have returned home, local media reported, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received them.

Footage from CTV television shows Trudeau welcoming businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig as they arrive in Calgary in western Canada on Saturday.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately comment.

“Welcome home, Michaels,” the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) wrote on Twitter.

“CSIS joins all Canadians in welcoming you to Canada.

Trudeau told reporters on Friday night that the two Canadians left Chinese airspace, shortly after Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou left Canada after reaching a deal with US prosecutors, ending at his extradition hearing.

Kovrig and Spavor were arrested in December 2018 on charges of espionage, shortly after Canadian authorities arrested Meng under a US warrant.

Shortly before Trudeau spoke on Friday, Canadian media reported that Meng had returned to China after making a deal with U.S. officials.

“Twelve minutes ago, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor left Chinese airspace to return home,” Trudeau told reporters in brief remarks.

“These two men have gone through an incredibly difficult situation, but it is inspiring and good news for all of us that they are returning home to be reunited with their families.”

Trudeau said Kovrig and Spavor were accompanied home by Canada’s Ambassador to China Dominic Barton.

“I know there is going to be time for reflections and analyzes in the days and weeks to come. But the point is, I know the Canadians will be incredibly happy to know now, this Friday night, that Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are on the plane and coming home.

“Hostage diplomacy”

In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also welcomed the release, “after more than two and a half years of arbitrary detention.”

“We are happy that they are returning home to Canada.

Kovrig and Spavor were tried in March of this year.

In August, Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison, despite no ruling in Kovrig’s case.

In early September, their families led hundreds of supporters to walk 7,000 steps in the Canadian capital – the same number Kovrig said in letters to his family he walked every day in his small cell – to draw attention to their detention.

Representatives from 26 countries also gathered outside the Beijing building where his closed-door trial was held in March.

Supporters of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor march to mark the 1,000 days since Canadians were arrested in China, during a protest in Ottawa earlier this month [File: Blair Gable/Reuters]

Canadian diplomats and others were also barred from attending Spavor’s trial in the northern Chinese city of Dandong.

The two Canadians had had almost no contact with the outside world since their detention, and virtual consular visits did not resume until October 2020 after a nine-month hiatus that authorities said was due to the pandemic of coronavirus.

Al Jazeera’s Jody Vance, in a report from Vancouver, said Canadians were “happy” to hear the news.

“It has been a very long road, a worrying road of more than a thousand days,” she said.

But she also said the episode had strained relations between Ottawa and Beijing, adding that the problem “will not go away anytime soon.”

“Where are we going from here in terms of Canada-China relations? “

Although Beijing insisted the two cases were unrelated, Trudeau’s Liberal government accused China of engaging in “hostage diplomacy.” Trudeau was not asked if the two countries had reached a bilateral agreement.

“I want to thank our allies and partners around the world within the international community who have stood in solidarity with Canada and these two Canadians,” Trudeau said.



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