The China Embassy in Ottawa has confirmed the executions of four Canadian-Chinese citizens for drug offenses.
China has executed four Canadian citizens for drug -related offenses earlier this year, despite multiple arguments for leniency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada said.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told journalists on Wednesday that she “strongly condemns” the executions and that she and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had asked for mercy in each case.
Joly did not provide more details on the four Canadians due to family confidentiality requests.
Canada Global Affairs spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said that Ottawa would continue to provide consular assistance to families, and that she “remains firm in opposition to the use of the death penalty, everywhere”.
While Western executions in China are relatively rare, the four Canadians were also double Chinese citizens – a status that Beijing does not recognize.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa told Canadian media that the four had obtained a fair trial and regular procedure in “strictly in line with the law”.
“China is a country of rule of law. He who violates the law of China must be held responsible in accordance with the law,” the embassy said in a statement published by the newspaper Globe and Mail.
“The facts of the crimes committed by the Canadian nationals involved in the cases are clear, and the evidence is solid and sufficient,” the press release also said.
Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of the English -speaking section of Amnesty International Canada, said that “shocking and inhuman executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be alarm clock to Canada”.
According to Canadian media, about 100 Canadians are currently detained in China. One of the most prominent cases is that of Robert Schellenberg, who was initially sentenced in 2014 to a sentence of 15 years in prison. His sentence was then changed to the death penalty after a new trial in January 2019.
Huawei’s executive’s arrest of Canada, Meng Wanzhou, at the request of the United States’s police at the end of 2018, as well as Beijing detention of two Canadians on charges of spying the same year, and allegations of Chinese interference in the Canadian elections, led to a sharp drop in Sino-Canadian relations.
Tension now seems to spread to the commercial relationship between the two countries.
Earlier this month, Beijing announced prices on Canadian agricultural products after Ottawa imposed a 100% levy from electric manufacturing vehicles last year.
Peter Humphrey, a former British investigator who defends foreigners detained in China, told the Globe and Mail that for China “execute a large number of foreign citizens” in rapid succession was “absolutely unprecedented”.
“It’s really a strong signal that China does not intend to repair things with Canada,” he said.
