Liberal MP Han Dong secretly advised Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay freeing Two Michaels: sources
By Sam Cooper Global News
Published March 22, 2023
Liberal MP Han Dong, who is at the centre of Chinese influence allegations, privately advised a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that Beijing should hold off freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, according to two separate national security sources.
Both sources said Dong allegedly suggested to Han Tao, China’s consul general in Toronto, that if Beijing released the “Two Michaels,” whom China accused of espionage, the Opposition Conservatives would benefit.
At the time, the two Canadians had been in Chinese custody for over two years. However, it was widely perceived that they were jailed in retribution for Canada’s detention of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive facing extradition to the United States.
Dong also allegedly recommended that Beijing show some progress in the Kovrig and Spavor cases, the two sources said. Such a move would help the ruling Liberal Party, which was facing an uproar over China’s inhumane treatment of Kovrig and Spavor.
Dong, who represents the Toronto-area riding of Don Valley North, was the one to initiate the discussion with the consul general, the two sources said, adding that Dong stipulated at the outset that it was both a personal and a work-related conversation.
In an emailed statement to Global News sent Tuesday, Dong confirmed that he had a discussion with Consul General Han, but disputed that he initiated it and also denies that he advised Beijing to delay releasing Kovrig and Spavor from prison.
“I raised the status of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig and called for their immediate release,” he wrote.
“At every opportunity before they returned home, I adamantly demanded their release to Canada without delay. Any suggestions otherwise are false and are attempts to mislead you and your readers, and slander me.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said it only became aware of the two-year-old conversation following Global News’ inquiries about it.
PMO spokesperson Alison Murphy wrote that her office “only became aware that a conversation took place after Mr. Dong told us, following recent media questions.”
Murphy also suggested that the MP was not acting at the behest of his government. “At no time was Mr. Dong ever used as a ‘back channel.’”
At the time of the conversation between Dong and the Chinese diplomat, Canadians were outraged that Spavor and Kovrig were held captive in secret Chinese prisons without due legal process and denied basic rights such as consular access.
Throughout 2021, then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole unsuccessfully pressed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a hawkish stance with Beijing and suggested Ottawa use the threat of sanctions to secure Kovrig and Spavor’s freedom.
Beijing favoured the re-election of Trudeau’s Liberals in the 2021 election, the two national security sources informed Global News, citing CSIS reports.
But at the same time, they said, Beijing was “hedging” by secretly aiding several Conservative candidates to support its stances and attacking other Tories whom it deemed to be critics of the Chinese Communist Party.
Last June, O’Toole said Beijing’s meddling was to blame for the loss of up to nine Conservative candidates in the 2021 federal election.
“We lost eight or nine seats to foreign interference from China,” said O’Toole.
Government officials, however, have maintained that interference did not impact the overall integrity of the contest.
While there have been a series of revelations about Chinese interference in Canadian affairs since Global News broke several stories in late 2022, the conversation between Dong and Consul General Han illustrates how political interference is not just affecting institutions but also has an impact on people – in this case, with two lives at stake, one of the two national security sources said.
CSIS investigates and gathers intelligence on foreign-state activity in Canada from human sources, surveillance of meetings and electronic interceptions.
Liberal MP Han Dong secretly advised Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay freeing Two Michaels: sources
