Canada has strongly condemned China’s execution of four Canadian citizens on drug smuggling charges earlier this year, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly announced on Wednesday.
Joly revealed that all four individuals held dual citizenship and stated that Ottawa would appeal for leniency for other Canadians facing the death penalty in China.
"There are four Canadians that have been executed, and we are strongly condemning what happened," Joly told reporters, confirming they had been convicted on drug-related charges.
The Canadian Foreign Ministry clarified that Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian sentenced to death in 2019 for drug smuggling, had not been executed.
Canada-China relations have remained strained since 2018 when Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, was arrested in Vancouver at the request of the Trump administration. In response, China detained two Canadian nationals. All three were released in 2021.
Earlier this month, Beijing imposed tariffs on more than U.S. $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products. The move was a response to Ottawa’s levies on Chinese electric vehicles, steel, and aluminum products last year.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa rejected Canada’s criticism, calling it an "irresponsible remark."
"China imposes severe penalties on drug-related crimes and maintains a 'zero tolerance' policy towards the drug problem," the embassy said in a statement, without confirming the executions.
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Wall Street closed lower on Thursday as renewed concerns about regional banks and intensifying U.S.-China trade tensions weighed on investor sentiment, pulling major indexes off recent record highs.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak in the coming days to prepare a new summit between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.
Catastrophic floods in central and eastern Mexico have claimed 70 lives, left 75 people missing, and displaced thousands, as survivors plead for government assistance while navigating streets covered in mud and debris.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
Hamas has accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by killing Palestinians while Israel says it wants the bodies of all hostages returned
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak in the coming days to prepare a new summit between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.
Catastrophic floods in central and eastern Mexico have claimed 70 lives, left 75 people missing, and displaced thousands, as survivors plead for government assistance while navigating streets covered in mud and debris.
Russian attacks have forced Ukraine to suspend activities at several major gas facilities this month, the state energy company said on Thursday, leaving Kyiv in need of more imports.
Britain’s top intelligence officer has revealed MI5 thwarted an attack from China within the past week, as he issued a stark warning that Beijing presents a “daily” threat to the UK’s national security.
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