FUREY: The two Michaels, languishing for 1,000 days and counting
Author of the article:Anthony Furey
Publishing date:Sep 03, 2021 • 17 hours ago • 3 minute read • 42 Comments
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on trial in China.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on trial in China.
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Imagine being kept from seeing your family for 1,000 days.
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Being locked up in a little cell, in awful conditions, for that amount of time — almost three years.
And, no, not because you committed a serious crime, went through an independent justice system and were found guilty. But because you were scooped up one day, held hostage as a pawn by another country that doesn’t play by the rules.
That’s exactly what’s happened to Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — the two Michaels.
This Saturday, they will have been detained for one thousand days.
And for what exactly? Well, it took from Dec. 2018 until June 2020 for China to even announce charges against them, ones of espionage.
That’s not how a fair and independent justice system operates. Then again, no one ever accused the Chinese Communist Party of overseeing an independent judiciary.
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Practically no experts are taking those charges seriously anyway. That’s because they know this all goes back to what happened mere days before the two Michaels were detained — the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
The RCMP arrested Meng on a provisional United States extradition request for fraud in relation to allegations that she was finding a way around U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The complicated case is still winding its way through the Canadian legal system, as Meng fights her extradition to the U.S. and China makes it clear that they want her released.
So is this all just a game of tit-for-tat? Maybe that’s how China sees it. But if that’s how it was really being played out, the two Michaels wouldn’t be languishing in conditions that are far worse than the high life enjoyed by Meng Wanzhou.
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Shortly after Meng was arrested, she was granted $10 million bail. She had to surrender her passport, wears a GPS tracker on her ankle, must be accompanied by security guards and must be home at night. Earlier this year, a judge denied her request to remove the need for security from her bail conditions.
And while she is not allowed to leave a certain kilometre radius of the pricier parts of Vancouver, she is otherwise free to live as she pleases and has been seen out dining and going on lavish shopping sprees.
Nice time awaiting trial if you can get it. It’s certainly not the way the two Michaels live.
While information only comes out periodically about the conditions they endure, what’s been told so far is of an inhumane situation.
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They have been interrogated for eight hour stretches. They have had their glasses taken away for prolonged periods.
The lights have been on when they sleep. And they’ve been denied access to a lawyer of their choosing, proper consular visits and visits with family.
Back in January, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau’s office confirmed that after months of negotiation they were able to increase the consular and family visits. Details weren’t provided though. Given that previous consular visits were at some point virtual only, one wonders if this improvement really amounts to much.
The word that’s been most often used to describe the detention of the two Michaels is “arbitrary” — it’s the phrase that’s been spoken by critical voices ranging from experts on China to lawyers to even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has otherwise been accused of pulling his punches on the regime of Xi Jinping.
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On Aug. 10, Michael Spavor was found guilty of espionage in one of their courts, and sentenced to 11 years in prison. How precisely did court proceedings unfold? What were the arguments presented for and against? We don’t know. Open and transparent courts is not how they do things over there.
It didn’t go unnoticed that the timing of Spavor’s court date mirrored the timing of a court appearance Meng Wanzhou was scheduled to make.
For the most part, it remains unclear what happens next for the two Michaels. One thing is for certain though: For now, they remain languishing in prison in poor conditions, unable to see loved ones.
It’s been 1,000 days and counting.
Imagine being kept from seeing your family for 1,000 days
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