Canadian MP Michael Cooper calls China’s treatment of detainees ‘unacceptable’
- Visiting delegation conveyed need for Beijing to immediately release Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who were detained in December
- Cooper says the two Canadians are ‘entitled to routine consular access and have been denied the right to a lawyer’
A member of a Canadian parliamentary delegation wrapped up a trip to China this week saying they were not satisfied with Beijing’s treatment of two detained Canadians and calling the limited consular access “unacceptable”.
“One of the issues we have is the failure of the Chinese government to provide Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor with the consular access that they are entitled to, according to the consular agreements between Canada and China,” Michael Cooper, a Canadian member of parliament, said in Hong Kong on Saturday after stops in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
“That is unacceptable. They are entitled to routine consular access and they have been denied the right to a lawyer,” Cooper said. “I am not satisfied at all. What our delegation conveyed was the need for immediate release.”
The visit by members of the Canada-China Legislative Association, which began on January 5, came after Kovrig and Spavor were detained separately by Chinese authorities on December 10 and amid the most tense diplomatic stand-off between the two countries in years.
Both men have been accused of endangering national security – a phrase often used by Beijing when alleging espionage. Canadian consular officials have been able to meet both Kovrig and Spavor twice since they were detained.
Their detentions came nine days after Canada’s arrest of Huawei Technologies executive Sabrina Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States. Meng, who is accused of fraud related to violating Iran sanctions, has been released on bail and faces extradition to the US.
China has not linked the cases, but the detentions of the two Canadians have been widely seen as retaliation.
