Over 120 Canadian citizens imprisoned in Chinese jails

Some contention was created when, upon releasing the number of Canadian’s detained, the Department of Foreign Affairs invoked the privacy act so to hide further details about these Canadians.

Dan Albas, who is the Conservative member of parliment for Central Okanagan-Similkameen, was irritated that further information was not released: “The Act gives too much insulation for the government … I would like to see a little more transparency from your department.”

When the Liberal Assistant Deputy Foreign Minister, Heather Jeffrey, was asked for clarification over these locked-up Canadians, she stated that these figures include “cases of arrest and detention.”

“I want to stress the number of Canadians in custody in China has remained stable over the last year,” Jeffrey added. The vast majority of the charges relate to drug and fraud charges.

Jeffrey, however, refused to answer how many Canadians exactly are on death row. Having said this, the Chinese regime have officially named two Canadians who are sentenced to be shot on drug-related charges.

In 2018, two Canadian businessmen were arrested without charge in China—seemingly in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. This sparked an international incident between China and Canada, and the two Canadians still have not been released.