Canadians executed in China

An unspecified number of Canadians were executed by China earlier this year, Global Affairs confirmed Wednesday.
This was under ex PM Justin  Trudeaus watch which there was no mention about the executions.

GAC spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said Ottawa “strongly condemns China’s use of the death penalty, which is irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity.”

“Canada repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere,” she said. “We continue to provide consular assistance to the victims’ families.”

Ms. MacLeod would not identify those executed and requested that media outlets respect their families’ privacy “during this difficult time.”

China’s embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the executions. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment at press time.

China carries out more executions than any other country in the world, according to Amnesty International, and regularly sentences foreigners to death, often on drug-related offences.

Executions of Westerners are rare however, with the last two cases being those of British national Akmal Shaikh, who was killed in 2009, and Lau Fat-wai, a Portuguese-Chinese resident of Macau, who was executed in 2013, both on drug trafficking charges.
Of the around 100 Canadians currently being held in China, many were also convicted of capital drug offences, one of the most high-profile of whom is Robert Schellenberg.

First arrested in 2014, Mr. Schellenberg initially received a 15-year prison term, but this was upgraded to a death penalty in 2018 weeks after the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou and the subsequent detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China. At the time, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole accused China of “planning to take the life of a Canadian for political reasons.”

Ms. MacLeod confirmed that Mr. Schellenberg was not among those Canadians executed earlier this year, and added Ottawa was continuing to advocate for clemency on his behalf.

Peter Humphrey, a former British private investigator jailed in China who now advocates on behalf of foreign prisoners, said the execution of multiple Canadian citizens “is a wake up call which should shock and alert every government in the world.”

“For China to execute a significant number of foreign citizens” in quick succession was “absolutely unprecedented,” Mr. Humphrey told The Globe. “This is really a strong signal that China has no intention of patching things up with Canada.”

The executions come as relations between Canada and China remain in the deep freeze they entered following the arrest of Ms. Meng. Earlier this month, China hit Canada with a raft of new tariffs in response to a ban on Chinese electric vehicles, which Chinese state media portrayed as a message to Ottawa not to follow new U.S. President Donald Trump’s hard line against Beijing.

Canadians should not be kept in the dark from our Govenment!