Free Michael Kovrig

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Michael Kovrig
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Portrait of Michael Kovrig, Acrylic on Canvas, Dave Gordon, 2019
June 21, 2020 - Kuwait City, Kuwait

The recent news that the Government of China has formally charged Michael Kovrig with espionage is a sad and alarming development in this tragic case of unlawful detention. Michael was on leave from Global Affairs Canada when he was arrested on December 10, 2018.

Michael was one of the first colleagues I met when I started working at Global Affairs Canada, formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

When I joined the department in August 2004, my first assignment was as the Coordinator of the Canadian Delegation to the United Nations 60th General Assembly. Michael, at the time, was a locally engaged public affairs officer with Canada's Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN). 

He had been asked by former Minister of Justice and Canada's Permanent Representative to the UN Allan Rock to develop a website to make the Mission's public statements available online. I was asked in Ottawa to work with Michael to launch a new website for the mission in New York, which at the time was technically more complicated than it is today. Michael and I became fast friends as we both had worked as journalists before moving over to the government.  

A few years later, Michael reached out to me when he had successfully joined the department as a full-time Foreign Service Officer. We worked together when he started as a political officer in our International Security Branch, and I was on posting to Damascus, Syria. Michael supported me through a stress-filled 24-hour evacuation from Damascus during the early days of the Arab Spring in May 2011.

We kept in regular touch, and we overlapped again when he was on Mandarin language training at our Foreign Service Institute while I was studying Farsi for an assignment in Tehran, Iran, which ended before it started after our Embassy was closed in September 2012. 

So it was heart-wrenching on December 10, 2018, when I learned that he had been arrested by the Chinese State Security on false charges of spying. Michael had decided to take a leave of absence from Global Affairs Canada and work for the International Crisis Group (ICG) as a China analyst and Senior Advisor based in Hong Kong.

I recall telling him when he moved to ICG that he was "living the dream" by following his interests and not limiting himself to the job security of being a public servant. Little could I have imagined that he would be the victim of circumstance and swept up in retaliatory action by the Chinese Government in response to the December 1, 2018, arrest in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, daughter of the company's founder.

Michael's unfortunate situation could quickly happen to any Canadian Foreign Service officer traveling on tourism or working overseas on leave from the public service.

I hope for his release and that his unjustified detention ends soon. 

LATEST NEWS

Chronology of Michael Kovrig's detention

Below is a selection of media stories about Michael's case. The links below in no way implies endorsement of any of the opinions or information provided in the articles. Please visit the International Crisis Group for more info on Michael's case. 

DECEMBER 10, 2018 - MICHAEL KOVRIG ARRESTED​
JANUARY 11, 2019 - CANADA ACCUSES CHINA OF VIOLATING MICHAEL'S DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY 
FEBRUARY 25, 2019 - CONSULAR OFFICIALS MEET MICHAEL
MARCH 4, 2019 - CHINA ACCUSES MICHAEL OF SPYING
MAY 16, 2019 - CHINA FORMALLY ARRESTS MICHAEL
MAY 21, 2019 - CANADA SENDS DELEGATION TO CHINA TO PUSH FOR MICHAEL'S RELEASE
JULY 4, 2019 - TRUMP RAISED MICHAEL'S CASE WITH CHINA
AUGUST 5, 2019 - MICHAEL RECEIVES CONSULAR VISIT
AUGUST 22, 2019 - US SECRETARY OF STATE VISITS OTTAWA
OCTOBER 29, 2019 - NEW CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO CHINA VISITS MICHAEL
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 - CHINA WARNS CANADA TO KEEP QUIET OVER HONG KONG PROTESTS ​
DECEMBER 10, 2019 - ONE ANNIVERSARY OF MICHAEL'S DETENTION
MARCH 13, 2020 - CHINA ALLOWS MICHAEL PHONE CALL WITH HIS FATHER
MAY 1, 2020 - CHINA SAYS MICHAEL IS HEALTHY
JUNE 19, 2020 - CHINA CHARGES MICHAEL OF SPYING
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​I was born in London, Ontario, which is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.
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