Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly talks to the press in closing remarks at the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting at the Fairmont Manoir Richelieu on March 14, in La Malbaie, que..Andrej Ivanov/Getty Images
Four Canadians were executed by China earlier this year after being convicted of drug-related offences, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says. Ottawa condemned the killings as “inconsistent with basic human dignity.”
The deaths are the latest in a series of stresses on the Canada-China relationship, which entered a deep freeze more than half a decade ago after Ottawa’s arrest of Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou. Relations have since been battered by allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections and an escalating trade dispute between the countries.
The Department of Global Affairs first revealed the executions earlier Wednesday in response to a query from The Globe and Mail.
Ms. Joly told reporters that the four deceased were dual nationals of Canada and China. The minister said she and former prime minister Justin Trudeau had intervened in recent months to ask Beijing for leniency as part of an unsuccessful effort to avert the executions.
The minister said government officials have been in contact with the families of the deceased and the families have asked Ottawa not to release any names or details.
Asked on CBC’s Power & Politics whether Canada would enact repercussions on China for these executions, Ms. Joly did not list any. She said she would keep raising the matter with Beijing for this and future cases.
Canada-China ties were badly strained after the arrest of Ms. Meng in 2018, and Beijing retaliated by jailing Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig for nearly three years.
Earlier this month, Beijing announced retaliatory tariffs on Canadian agricultural and seafood products in response to a 100-per-cent levy that Ottawa placed on Chinese-made electric vehicles in 2024. Canada had accused China of subsidizing and overproducing electric vehicles and flooding global markets – a tactic that could help drown out competitors. Ottawa also imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.
Chinese state media portrayed China’s retaliation as a message to Ottawa not to follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s hard line against Beijing.
Global Affairs spokeswoman Charlotte MacLeod said Canada “strongly condemns China’s use of the death penalty, which is irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity.”
She said Ottawa “repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere.” She added that “We continue to provide consular assistance to the victims’ families.”
The Chinese embassy in Canada on Wednesday defended its use of capital punishment and said it shows no leniency for drug crimes.
“China is a rule-of-law country. Whoever violates the law of China must be held accountable in accordance with the law,” the embassy said in a statement.
According to the mission, the executed Canadians were granted a fair trial and due process.
“The facts of the crimes committed by the Canadian nationals involved in the cases are clear, and the evidence is solid and sufficient. The Chinese judicial authorities have handled the cases in strict accordance with the law, and have fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned,” its statement said.
In response to criticism from the federal government, the embassy said Ottawa must treat China’s justice system as legitimate.
China carries out more executions than any other country in the world, according to Amnesty International, and regularly sentences foreigners to death, often on drug-related offences.
The country has a conviction rate of more than 99 per cent, according to official statistics, and appeals are rarely granted, nor are requests for clemency. However, executions of Westerners are rare.
Of the around 100 Canadians currently being held in China, many were also convicted of capital drug offences, one of the most high profile of whom is Robert Schellenberg.
First arrested in 2014, Mr. Schellenberg initially received a 15-year prison term, but this was upgraded to a death penalty in 2018 weeks after the arrest of Ms. Wanzhou and the subsequent detention of Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig. At the time, then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole accused China of “planning to take the life of a Canadian for political reasons.”
Ms. MacLeod confirmed that Mr. Schellenberg was not among those Canadians executed earlier this year, and added that Ottawa was continuing to advocate for clemency on his behalf.
Canadian citizens Fan Wei, Xu Weihong and Ye Jianhui have also been sentenced to death on drug charges in China. It is unclear whether they were among those executed.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said his party condemns China’s executions. “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,” he said.
“These wrongful deaths are a result of a highly politicized justice system, as the response to the 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou demonstrated with the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and the change in sentencing for Robert Schellenberg from prison to death penalty,” Mr. Chong said.
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of these Canadians at this difficult moment.”
Guy Saint-Jacques, who was Canada’s ambassador to China from 2012 to 2016, said he remembers discussing the plight of Mr. Xu and Mr. Ye when he was advising the federal government in late 2018 and early 2019 on how to respond to the diplomatic row over the arrest of Ms. Meng.
In August, 2020, Mr. Xu was sentenced for producing mass amounts of the drug ketamine in the southern city of Guangzhou, according to state media reports.
A day later, in that same province of Guangdong, Mr. Ye was found guilty of producing and transporting MDMA.
Mr. Saint-Jacques said at least two Canadian citizens were executed in China for drug crimes when he was stationed there – despite then-prime minister Stephen Harper personally asking President Xi Jinping to spare their lives.
In his past discussions with Chinese officials regarding capital punishment for drug offenders, he said they have rationalized these penalties by saying “We don’t want to have a drug problem as you have in Western countries.”
Peter Humphrey, a former British private investigator who was jailed in China and now advocates on behalf of foreign prisoners, said the execution of multiple Canadian citizens “is a wake-up call which should shock and alert every government in the world.”
“For China to execute a significant number of foreign citizens” in quick succession was “absolutely unprecedented,” Mr. Humphrey told The Globe. “This is really a strong signal that China has no intention of patching things up with Canada.”
With a report from Mike Hager in Vancouver
Joly says Canada strongly condemns Beijing for executing the Canadians for drug crimes.
The Canadian Press