Federal government expected to announce help for Canadians in Hong Kong today

OTTAWA — The federal government is expected to announce long-awaited plans today to help Canadians living in Hong Kong amid the Chinese clampdown on democracy in the territory.

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino is to unveil the government’s plans at a press conference in Ottawa.

Also today, members of the House of Commons committee looking into the plight of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang province are expected to highlight their recent report criticizing the Beijing government.

The moves will both likely anger China, which has warned the Trudeau government not to intervene in Hong Kong, and to butt out on levelling criticism related to the Uighurs.

Canada’s relations with China are at an all-time low because the People’s Republic has imprisoned two Canadian men, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in what the Trudeau government has branded as coercive or hostage diplomacy.

Kovrig and Spavor were rounded up by Chinese authorities in December 2018, nine days after Canada arrested Chinese high-tech scion Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2020.

The Canadian Press

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