Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, leaves court in Hong Kong in February, 2021.Tyrone Siu/Reuters
A drive to grant jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai honorary Canadian citizenship is on hold after the Liberal MP spearheading the move was told by her government’s House leader to shelve the motion just before she was about to present it.
The MP, Judy Sgro, had already gained the support of MPs from all parties for a unanimous-consent motion that raised the plight of Mr. Lai, who has been held in solitary confinement for 4½ years.
The motion was seen as a symbolic gesture by Canada to bolster support for Mr. Lai before the G7 leaders’ summit in Alberta this weekend.
Ms. Sgro said she was not given a clear explanation for the government’s move. She said she plans to persevere with the motion.
She was approached by Steven MacKinnon, the Government House Leader, on Wednesday and told that she could not present it.
“I had everybody on side and ready to move forward yesterday at noon. But then somewhere, something went off the rails,” she said on Thursday. “I had it lined up, and so I was shocked.”
Mr. Lai’s son, Sebastien, was in Ottawa this week to press for his case to be raised at the G7. He told The Globe and Mail on Wednesday that passing the motion would show Canada subscribes to the values embodied by his father.
Ottawa under pressure to raise plight of Jimmy Lai at G7 summit
Mr. Lai, a British citizen and publisher of the now shuttered prodemocracy Apple Daily newspaper, was arrested in Hong Kong on conspiracy and sedition charges in December, 2020.
The businessman, who has close family and business ties to Canada, has been held in a maximum-security prison, and denied bail and a trial by jury.
He is on trial for violating a Beijing-imposed national-security law that critics say is emblematic of the erosion of rights and freedoms in the former British colony.
One of the charges he faces is “collusion with foreign countries or external elements” and one of the accusatory arguments raised in his trial was that he had spoken to Canadian parliamentarians.
Ms. Sgro said there is support across Parliament to award him honorary citizenship, and that Parliamentarians have approached her and asked what happened. When the government informed her that she couldn’t present the motion, she said, “I was furious with them.”
She said the House Leader was “clearly very frustrated with having to come to me and tell me this, because he knew how much I had been working on it.”
Mr. Lai’s lawyers say that granting him honorary citizenship could prove enormously important for Mr. Lai’s case, and place an onus on Canada to help him.
Russian dissident and prodemocracy leader Vladimir Kara-Murza was granted honorary Canadian citizenship by unanimous consent of Parliament in June, 2023. He was released from Russian prison last year.
In 2023, the House of Commons and Senate passed unanimous-consent motions urging Mr. Lai’s release.
Editorial: Canada needs to be clear: Free Jimmy Lai
The government has been reviewing the use of unanimous-consent motions, including by the NDP, which was angered recently when it was denied the chance to present such a motion about children from Ukraine.
In a statement, the Government House Leader’s Office said it would not comment on the “specific case” of Mr. Lai.
But it said a unanimous-consent motion was not the appropriate vehicle for a major foreign-policy matter.
“As it relates to unanimous-consent motions in general, we do not believe that serious and substantive foreign-policy issues should be decided without any debate. A unanimous-consent motion does not allow for any debate before a decision is taken,” the statement said.
“There are other tools that MPs can use, such as private members’ motions and committee studies to raise issues of importance, and this will ensure that MPs get a chance to participate in a debate before making a decision.”
Brandon Silver, director of policy and programs at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said in a statement that “procedural delays should not slow down a life-saving effort to demonstrate Parliament’s support for Mr. Lai, a 77-year-old diabetic being held in torturous conditions.”
“His life is on the line and time is of the essence,” he added.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, said Immigration Minister Lena Diab has the power to grant Mr. Lai honorary citizenship and should do so before the G7 summit, when world leaders are gathering.
“She should do it right now and absolutely before the G7,” she said. “The whole idea is to get it in front of the international community.”