My Take | Truth slowly comes out about ‘Two Michaels’ in compensation talks
- As Ottawa seeks to reach settlement with men released on same day as Meng Wanzhou, it appears Beijing may have been the most candid in affair
What do you know? The same-day release of Huawei Technologies’ No 2 Meng Wanzhou and the two Michaels back in September 2021 from their respective Canadian and Chinese custody looks increasingly like a straight-up hostage swap.
The truth is slowly coming out and it appears Beijing has been a lot more candid than Ottawa the whole time. The Chinese side has insisted that Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were arrested for spying, while the Canadians have claimed they were just hostages.
The latest? The Canadian government is offering each man about C$3 million (HK$17.7 million) to compensate them for nearly three years of detention by the Chinese, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.
That comes after Spavor threatened to sue Ottawa for more than C$10 million for gross negligence in handling intelligence gathered in China. The government of Justin Trudeau had dismissed Spavor’s claims as hogwash, but now, rather swiftly, is offering him C$3 million-plus. Who knows what beans Spavor is ready to spill if he and his lawyers ever take his case to a Canadian court?
Kovrig may have lucked out, having played the good soldier with stoicism and silence since his release. After all, Ottawa can’t just pay one Michael and not the other.
The two men were detained after Meng was arrested in Vancouver on an American warrant for fraud and breaching US sanction laws, though it now seems clear it was all part of Washington’s decade-long attempt to destroy Huawei as the world’s once leading 5G supplier, a prelude to the US’ open tech war against China.