Former diplomat Michael Kovrig said his government was caught off guard by China’s decision to arrest and detain him in 2018 and that he could have been released sooner if there had been a plan in place.
Three years after returning to Canada, he is now calling on the federal government to publish a formal policy on Canadians being arbitrarily detained in other countries.
“You have to have plans and procedures and strategies in place to deal with that,” Kovrig said in a recent interview with CBC News chief reporter Adrienne Arceneaux.
“For a variety of reasons, the Canadian government was not prepared. The U.S. government was not prepared for the backlash that would result from Meng Wanzhou’s arrest. So it took a long time to figure out what to do.”
Canada accuses China of arresting Kovrig and Canadian national Michael Spavor in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Washington’s request in 2018. The United States then requested the extradition of Meng, who was being held on fraud charges.
Kovrig and Spavor spent more than 1,000 days in Chinese prisons until the U.S. dropped its extradition request in 2021 and China released them.
Michael Kovrig says the Canadian government was unprepared when Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was detained in China along with her Canadian counterpart Michael Spavor after their arrest. He is now calling for Canada to develop a better strategy for dealing with backlash from countries like China.
“It’s a fundamental responsibility of states to protect their own citizens,” Kovrig told CBC News, “but we also need to look at deterrence, deniability and other ways to prevent state hostage-taking.”
Neither man has publicly acknowledged receiving any settlement money, but sources tell CBC News that both Kovrig and Spavor have been offered financial assistance from the government to help them rebuild their lives.
Canada’s foreign affairs department said it was “actively engaged” in discussions with the Canadian government about financial assistance and that the issue had been resolved.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian, in an interview with Kovrig by CBC News, said China’s judicial authorities follow the law and accuse Kovrig of committing a crime. Kovrig has denied any wrongdoing, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “absolutely no justification, reason or excuse” for his arrest.
Kovrig said he worries about other Canadians who may be arbitrarily detained in China or elsewhere, and he recently met with Canadian foreign affairs officials who said the government needs to take steps to prevent others from suffering what he did.
“I think a slightly different approach and understanding the problem sooner probably would have led to a quicker resolution,” he said, “but let’s not pretend it was easy. Frankly, this situation is very complicated.”
Kovrig said he did not blame the government for what happened, thanked them for the “tremendous efforts” they made to help him return home, and said he personally thanked government officials who worked to secure his release.
“I think in the end they found the right path,” Kovrig said. “They put a lot of really talented, capable, motivated people into it, so I don’t fault them for their efforts.”
He said the “key lesson” Canada should learn from this ordeal is that “we need better preparations and strategies.”
Canada dropped its extradition case against Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou after she signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the United States, resolving the case. She is no longer believed to be in Canada.
Kovrig said the then federal justice minister “had the power to suspend and effectively terminate the proceedings at any time”, but acknowledged there would have been “costs and consequences” if the minister had not suspended the proceedings. Intervened to prevent Meng’s extradition to the US
“I think what’s really important is thinking more strategically about what influence Canada had, particularly with the U.S. and China, and how we could have used that influence to speed up the process,” he said.
Kovrig praised U.S. President Joe Biden for having the “moral courage to make the difficult decision where others have been unwilling or unable to before” to bring him home.
François-Philippe Champagne served as foreign affairs minister while Kovrig was in custody from 2019 to 2021. Champagne told CBC News that bringing Kovrig and Spavor home “was the government’s top priority.”
“I know him, I know his family and I can assure you that as a government we have done everything we can to bring him home,” he said.
Champagne said he remembered meeting for hours with China’s foreign minister in Rome and multiple discussions with the Canadian ambassador to China about providing Kovrig “everything he needs during his period of detention.”
Current Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said she had “many conversations” with Kovrig, who “went through hell.”
Canada 2021 Initiative on Arbitrary Detention She said she had persuaded dozens of countries to sign the agreement following the detention of Kovrig and Spavor.
“We have 75 countries signing this, which sends a clear message to the world, and to countries that do not always follow international norms, that we will not accept our people being used as pawns in this geopolitical game,” Jolie said.
But the 2023 report He said Canada has yet to make the legal changes needed to better handle these cases.
The report was co-authored by Kovrig’s former wife, Vina Najibullah, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center and an expert on international security and peacebuilding, and Stephanie Forgett, a research associate at the Soufan Center.
The report said Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, which leads the government’s response to Canadians detained overseas, has tried to develop a policy framework to address the issue for the past 20 years but has yet to adopt one.
The report also said that unlike the United States, Canada has no legislation that “expressly” requires the government to provide consular services to its citizens overseas.
The Soufan Centre report also cited a report by the National Security Intelligence Committee of Canadian Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which said the RCMP, Department of National Defense and Canadian Security Intelligence Service have no plan for coordinating responses to Canadians taken hostage outside of Canada. NSICOP recommended the government develop a “clear framework” and provide sufficient resources to respond to “significant incidents.”
“Although the government agreed with all of NSICOP’s recommendations, no action appears to have been taken,” the SouFan Center report said.
In an interview with The National’s Adrienne Arsenault, former diplomat Michael Kovrig described how he was captured by masked officials on the streets of Beijing and how he survived in Chinese captivity for nearly three years.
“Canada will continue to work with international partners to strengthen collective response and deterrence mechanisms,” the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The department also appointed Julie Sunday as its senior official for hostage issues, a move the ministry said was “just one example” of steps Canada has taken to improve its ability to respond to hostage crises.
Sunday is no longer in that position and is now Canada’s High Commissioner to Australia.
