Trudeau says Canada is ‘continuing to support’ Kovrig and Spavor, amid settlement news

March 7, 2024 Canuck

Facing questions about potential settlements for two Canadians imprisoned for three years in China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to discuss specifics on Thursday but said Canada is “continuing to support them.”

On Wednesday, after the Globe and Mail first reported that Michael Spavor had reached a settlement, Spavor’s lawyer confirmed his client had resolved a legal matter with the Canadian government.

“I apologize, but I am only able to say that the matter between Mr. Spavor and the Government of Canada has been resolved,” said lawyer John K. Phillips, in an email to CTV News.

The resolution of the matter comes more than two years after Michael Kovrig and Spavor were released by China, and just a few months after The Globe and Mail reported Canada was ready to sign off on multimillion-dollar packages for both men. When asked, Trudeau would not say if a similar arrangement has been reached with Kovrig.

“I’m not going to get into these matters, because of confidentiality issues. But of course, Canada has been there to fight for the two Michaels’ freedom and we will be there as they rebuild their lives,” said the prime minister.

Late last year, citing unnamed sources, the Globe and Mail reported that Spavor was seeking a multimillion-dollar settlement, alleging he was detained for unwittingly sharing with Kovrig sensitive intelligence related to North Korea that was then provided to Canadian officials and allies.

It has been reported that the settlement is worth as much as $7 million, though details regarding the resolution of the legal matter have not been specified, nor confirmed by CTV News.

“From the very beginning, we’ve been there to support the two Michaels who went through unimaginable difficulties being arbitrarily detained by China,” Trudeau said Thursday during a Toronto press conference.

“We will continue to be there to support them… recognizing that no one should have had to go through that situation,” he said. “The decision by China to use them as pawns in geopolitical games was absolutely unacceptable.”

The return of the two Michaels to Canada in 2021 marked the end of a lengthy overseas imprisonment that began in December 2018 on the basis of espionage charges that were largely viewed as a retaliatory response to Canada’s arrest of Chinese tech giant Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request.

The men were released the same day that the U.S. Justice Department reached a deal to resolve charges against Meng and a B.C. judge discharged the extradition matter.

Asked to comment on Chinese state media reporting that the resolution of Spavor’s legal matter was an indication of wrongdoing, Trudeau was unequivocal in stating “there was absolutely no justification, no reason, no excuse” for the pair’s detention.

“The fact that the Chinese government thinks that because we actually believe in supporting and taking care of citizens who go through hardship, as somehow proof for letting them off the hook, just demonstrates the depths to which China does not understand what it is to be a rule of law country that takes care of its citizens.”

With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha and Charlie Buckley

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