Trudeau calls on US, China to discuss two detained Canadians

Canadian Prime Minister called for the U.S. and China to discuss two Canadians detained in China as high-ranking officials from Washington and Beijing meet in Alaska Friday. 

Trudeau in a press conference panned the “arbitrary” detentions of Michael Spavor, who was tried Thursday without the presence of any Canadian officials, and Michael Kovrig, who will be tried Monday. Both were arrested just days after Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant.

The two were charged with espionage and face potential life sentences.

“Let me be very clear: Their arbitrary detention is completely unacceptable, as is the lack of transparency around these court proceedings,” Trudeau said. 

“I am very confident that this is an issue that will be raised at that summit.”

Trudeau has already brought up the detentions of Spavor and Kovrig with President Biden. The two leaders last month held a virtual bilateral meeting, during which Biden affirmed that “human beings are not bartering chips.”

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada in calling for their immediate release and continue to condemn the lack of minimum procedural protections during their two-year arbitrary detention,” Katherine Brucker, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Canada, said in a statement Thursday.

The Alaska summit kicked off Thursday, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan meeting their Chinese counterparts. The meeting had an acrimonious beginning, with China questioning the state of U.S. democracy and the country’s treatment of Black citizens.