China executed four Canadians in the past few months, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said on Wednesday, adding that she and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had asked for clemency in the drug-related accusations involving the dual citizens.
Beijing’s embassy in Ottawa said that the executions were due to drug crimes and added that China does not recognize dual citizenship.
“We strongly condemn the executions,” Joly told reporters in Ottawa. “I asked personally for leniency... They were all dual citizens.”
Photo: AP
Joly said that Canada consistently asks for clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty abroad.
She said the families have asked the government to withhold details of the identity of the four individuals.
Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said that the agency — which manages Canada’s diplomatic and consular relations — continues to provide consular assistance to families and requested that the media respect their privacy.
Ottawa continues to advocate for clemency for Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling, MacLeod said.
“China always imposes severe penalties on drug-related crimes,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said. “The facts of the crimes committed by the Canadian nationals involved in the cases are clear, and the evidence is solid and sufficient.”
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) “fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned,” the spokesperson said, adding that Canada’s government should “stop making irresponsible remarks.”
The two countries have some tensions. China imposed retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports earlier this month, after Canada imposed duties in October last year on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EV), and steel and aluminum products.
“China is sending us a message that we have to take steps if we want to see an improvement in the relationship,” former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques said.
Ian Brodie, a former chief of staff to former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, wrote on social media that it turns out “agricultural tariffs weren’t the worst part of the PRC response to EV tariffs.”
Opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong said that “executing a number of Canadians in short order is unprecedented, and is clearly a sign that Beijing has no intention of improving relations with Canada.”
Amnesty International condemned the executions in a statement.
“These shocking and inhumane executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be a wake-up call for Canada,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, the group’s head for English-speaking Canada.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS