National Post

The long silence of Canada's two Michaels

National Post sent this email to their subscribers on May 30, 2023.

Text-only version of this email

China’s leaders kept Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in solitary confinement, with lights glaring throughout the day, for much of their 34 months in prison. View this email in your browser W INFORMED@PINION Curated by Dharm Makwana Good afternoon and welcome to Informed Opinion. If you like what you see, tell your friends to sign up here. *** New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan said Monday that Canada’s spy agency has confirmed her long-held belief she is being targeted by the Chinese government, as Prime Minister Trudeau granted the NDP’s wish to allow more party members to review top-secret intelligence. Kwan said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spent an hour with her on Friday laying out the intelligence it possesses that she has been targeted by China since before the 2019 federal election over her advocacy for human rights in Hong Kong and for the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. (Getty Images) The long silence of Canada's two Michaels Q Douglas Todd b China’s leaders kept Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in solitary confinement, with lights glaring throughout the day, for much of their 34 months in prison. When China finally released the two Michaels on Sept. 24, 2021, the news shot around the world. We can only imagine the suffering they endured, which has been readily described as torture. Yet, while many former hostages have made their agonizing stories public, the two Canadian nationals have remained silent. It's widely held that Kovrig, who was working for the International Crisis Group, and Spavor, a tourism consultant working in North Korea, were used as leverage for the release, on the same day, of Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou, who was under house arrest in a Vancouver mansion on a U.S. extradition warrant. No one suggests Spavor and Kovrig are obligated to publicly speak. But some experts, such as Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the U.S. secretary of state, says the government of Canada has an obligation to speak about China’s behaviour, since it was involved in negotiating the Michaels' release. Spavor and Kovrig “may still feel the trauma of their torture and choose to refuse to relive those nightmarish memories” — even while it may not be “the most ideal outcome for public policy and public education,” Yu said in an interview. “Or they might have been threatened by the Chinese Communist government to keep quiet to avoid further torment. So, on a personal level, I respect their choice,” said Yu, a professor of modern China at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland. “But after their return to freedom, the Canadian government bears the responsibility to engender a public disclosure about the two Michaels’ ordeal, because the whole affair is not just about tactical transactions to ensure their release, but a matter of Canada as a sovereign country being blackmailed, and its citizens blatantly tortured with no justification whatsoever. In other words, the two Michaels may have the perfect right to be silent, the Canadian government does not.” Sarah Teich, a Canadian lawyer who specializes in counter-terrorism and hostage law, said the two Michaels could well have signed a non-disclosure agreement with China to obtain their release. Teich personally knows several former hostages, including Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a British-Australian academic who was jailed for more than two years by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Last year, Moore-Gilbert began talking widely to the media about her ruthless mistreatment, and its geo-political implications for others. “I don’t think there’s a right answer” about former hostages going public, said Teich, who is affiliated with the Canadian Security Research Group, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and other organizations. “We can’t blame a former hostage for not wanting to revisit their trauma. But there’s obviously value in former hostages speaking out about what they went through — if for no other reason that Canadians know the risk when they travel to authoritarian countries. We also don’t need the two Michaels to get out that awareness — your article will contribute to that.” It's important for Canadians to learn about the taking of hostages for political ends, since the practice is expanding, said Teich. China got Meng back through hostage diplomacy, she said. “It’s a tactic that works. So, of course, they’re going to keep doing it.” Teich has appeared before parliamentary committees to help develop better legal and policy frameworks to deal with hostage-taking. “We need to be better prepared for it. There are all sorts of problems with the government response to hostage diplomacy,” she said. Those difficulties include the inconsistent treatment of the families of hostages, she said, as well as Canada’s failure to respond to hostage taking with so-called Magnitsky sanctions, which target foreign nationals who take part in human rights abuses. Former Richmond Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, an outspoken critic of Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong and the two Michaels, said there are many unanswered questions about the way their release corresponded with that of Meng. “But we can only speculate for the next couples of decades. Why hasn’t there been an interview with them to talk about an experience that ended over 18 months ago?” asked Chiu, who pointed out that Kevin Garratt, who was imprisoned in China last decade, gave full accounts of his and his wife’s ordeal months after returning to Canada. Chiu, who lost the riding of Steveston-Richmond East in 2021 after a disinformation campaign was launched against him on Chinese-language social media, said “there was a sense of awkwardness to seeing” the two Michaels together in the House of Commons on March 24, when they received a standing ovation. “They were being cheered on by MPs and dignitaries gathered to listen to the visiting president of the U.S., Joe Biden. The non-verbal message being broadcast was that their release was somehow related to an intervention of the U.S. president,” Chiu said. “In politics, timing is everything,” Chiu said, and their appearance "seemed like an attempt to thank the U.S. president for his intervention.” The two Michaels did not speak to gathered journalists. Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who has had extensive high-level dealings with China, said it is most likely that the two Michaels agreed to be released on condition they “muzzle up” in Canada. Kurland noted Meng also seems to have kept a low-key media profile since returning to the helm of Huawei, although she initially made a few public appearances where she talked about learning from her experience and being proud of China. While acknowledging it is speculation, Kurland also suspects PTSD could be triggered if Spavor and Kovrig return to the limelight. “If they need counselling, Ottawa should pay for it.” So many questions. But while the two Michaels have more than a right to peace, and quiet, after their nightmare, it’s not at all clear the government does. VANCOUVER SUN LT Covering the issues that matter to you. ST s4uvm DON'T isS 0uT Drawing board T RepAi7e THAT There 4 A ShoRaGe oF FAMILY Doclore, Mrs. chuzzleWIT, BUT NS YSToMAr To WAT AT LeAST UNTIL GRAPUATION Berore ACRUINNG oNe! UBC FAGULTY OFMEDICINE Voices If it’s bad now, wait until artificial intelligence technology like ChatGPT gets into the fraud game, likely soon, writes Postmedia contributor Josh Freed.  These AI bots will probably be able to create personally tailored false web page scams for everyone — then send them out in seconds, inundating eight billion inboxes in 195 countries and 200 languages. It may not be long before you can’t trust a message from your own spouse. We may have to get ChatGPT-style anti-scam security bots to scan our emails and spot messages from robo-scammers. *** On his recent visit to South Korea, before travelling on to Japan for the G7 meeting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened the new Kapyong Memorial Trail. Not only did he participate in the ceremonial opening but afterward he and students from the Calvin Manitoba International School in Incheon made a two-hour hike along the trail to the top of the hill, writes Tom MacGregor, an expert on Canadian veterans and military heritage. In doing so, he paid homage to those members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry who fought there, but also he reminded Canadians of what is often called “the forgotten war.” Advertise with us © 2023 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. 365 Bloor St East, Toronto, ON, M4W 3L4 You received this email because you are subscribed to the Vancouver Sun's Informed Opinion Newsletter, registered as [email protected] • • • Contact us • Digital Ad Registry © 2023 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.  
Show all

The Latest Emails Sent By National Post

More Emails, Deals & Coupons From National Post

Email Offers, Discounts & Promos From Our Top Stores