Merchandise in support of Jimmy Lai is displayed before a news conference, on Monday in Washington.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press
The conviction of Hong Kong newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai for sedition and colluding with foreign forces has drawn wide condemnation in Canada, where members of Parliament and his Canadian relatives have called for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds.
Mr. Lai, who has close family as well as extensive business interests in Ontario, now faces the prospect of life in prison, after spending almost five years in solitary confinement. The 78-year-old media mogul was convicted Monday at a court in Hong Kong.
His incarceration has prompted widespread international condemnation, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, who told reporters Monday he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider freeing Mr. Lai.
“I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s not well. He’s an older man, and he’s not well, so I did put that request out. We’ll see what happens.”
There was no public comment on Mr. Lai’s verdict from Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is seeking to repair Canadian relations with Beijing and is planning to meet with Mr. Xi in China at some point in the near future.
Media mogul Jimmy Lai found guilty in Hong Kong court
Mr. Lai, a British national, founded the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong, and was a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party before his arrest in 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges. His arrest was part of a wider crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was known for press freedom.
Mr. Lai has diabetes, and his international legal team has raised grave doubts that he will receive proper medical treatment in prison, citing examples of diabetic prisoners who have died behind bars in Hong Kong.
Mr. Lai’s niece Erica Lepp lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake along with her mother, who is Mr. Lai’s twin sister. She said Monday that the family “hopes he can be released on almost any grounds.”
“Although we knew this verdict was coming, it’s still a sad day, for us and all of Hong Kong,” she said in a text message.
MPs across the political spectrum in Canada also condemned Mr. Lai’s conviction.
Liberal MP Judy Sgro called the decision “one more slap in the face for democracy.”
Earlier this year, she had gained the agreement of MPs from all parties for a motion to award Mr. Lai honorary citizenship as a powerful symbolic gesture of support, but just before she was about to present the motion, the Liberal Government House leader told her to shelve it.
Ms. Sgro said she hopes the Prime Minister will raise Mr. Lai’s case when he meets Mr. Xi. The two leaders had agreed to meet when they spoke earlier this year on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in South Korea.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, said Mr. Lai’s conviction is “another devastating milestone in the systematic dismantling of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong.”
“Mr. Lai is not a criminal – he is a prisoner of conscience whose only ‘crime’ is standing up for democracy, freedom of the press, and the rule of law,” she said in a statement.
Bloc Québécois foreign affairs critic Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said the guilty verdict was “revolting.”
“The Bloc Québécois demands the immediate release of Mr. Lai and we await the same resolve from Mr. Carney and his government,” he said.
Michael Kovrig urges Canada to press China for Jimmy Lai’s release on health grounds
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada condemns the “politically motivated prosecution” of Mr. Lai. She said the government calls for his immediate release.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who raised Mr. Lai’s case at a G7 foreign ministers meeting last month, also called the prosecution of Mr. Lai “politically motivated” and renewed calls for his “immediate release, for all necessary treatment and for full access to independent medical professionals.”
Amnesty International’s China director Sarah Brooks called it “the death knell for press freedom in Hong Kong, where the essential work of journalism has been rebranded as a crime.”
“Jimmy Lai is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, and he must be immediately and unconditionally released,” she said in a statement.
The International Press Institute expressed similar concern about the suppression of media in Hong Kong.
“Jimmy Lai’s conviction shows how Hong Kong’s courts have been weaponized to crush independent journalism and voices,” said IPI executive director Scott Griffen. “Lai’s inhumane imprisonment also lays bare how far the Chinese authorities will go to silence independent information and ideas.”
Opinion: Jimmy Lai trial is latest sign of Hong Kong’s heartbreaking descent
Mr. Lai’s international legal team has said that if Mr. Lai were to die in prison, it would rebound on the Chinese authorities and prove a grave embarrassment.
International lead counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who visited Canada earlier this year to raise his case with MPs, said Monday’s verdict “is a stain on a once enviable Hong Kong legal system.”
“If China fails to release him immediately and unconditionally, the international community must hold China to account,” she said in a statement.
Mr. Lai’s son Sebastien also visited Canada to speak with MPs earlier this year. In a statement, he called Monday “a dark day for anyone who believes in truth, freedom and justice.”
“My family and I are saddened but not surprised by the guilty verdict in my father’s case.”
Sebastien Lai Sung-yan, son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai.HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP/Getty Images
Members of Hong Kong’s diaspora community in Canada said Mr. Lai’s conviction should raise alarms about the danger of doing business in the former British colony.
Andy Wong, president of pro-democracy group Canada-Hong Kong Link, said Ottawa should warn Canadian businesses about those risks.
“Hong Kong is just like another Chinese city,” he said. “It doesn’t have the rule of law and it doesn’t have any freedom.”
Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli from Niagara Falls—Niagara-on-the-Lake called for Mr. Lai’s immediate release. He said the businessman is respected by the local community and is a major investor in its tourism industry.
Former justice minister and Mr. Lai’s Canadian counsel Irwin Cotler said Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union should “reaffirm their call for his immediate and unconditional release lest his continuing unjust imprisonment in solitary confinement become a death sentence, for which China and the Hong Kong government would bear responsibility.”