Canada lacks a plan to deal with arbitrary arrests of Canadians abroad, Kovrig says

Former diplomat Michael Kovrig says his government was caught flatfooted by China's decision to arrest and detain him in 2018 — and could have secured his release earlier if it had a plan in place.

Three years after his return to Canada, he's now calling on the federal government to publicly release a formal policy on Canadians being arbitrarily detained by other countries.

«You need to have plans and procedures and strategies in place to deal with it,» Kovrig told CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault in a recent interview.

«For a number of reasons, the Canadian government was not prepared. The U.S. government wasn't prepared for the blowback from arresting Meng Wanzhou. And so it took them a long time to figure out what to do.»

Canada has accused China of arresting Kovrig and his fellow Canadian Michael Spavor in a tit-for-tat response to the RCMP's arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Washington's request in 2018. The U.S. had an extradition request out at the time for Meng, who was detained on fraud charges.

Kovrig and Spavor spent more than 1,000 days in Chinese prison cells before the U.S. dropped its extradition request in 2021 and China freed them.

«That is the fundamental responsibility of the state, is to protect its own citizens,» Kovrig told CBC News. «But you also need to look at deterrence and denial and other ways to prevent hostage-taking by states.»

While the two men have never confirmed publicly they received a settlement, sources tell CBC News both Kovrig and Spavor were offered financial support from the government to help them rebuild their lives.

Global Affairs Canada said it «proactively engaged» in discussions with them about financial support and the matter has been resolved.

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