Irwin Cotler is a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and a Canadian advisor to Jimmy Lai. Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer and Director of Policy and Projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong journalist hero, is unjustly languishing in prison, and his trial will have repercussions for all Canadians.
Lai's newspaper, Apple Daily, was raided and shut down simply for engaging in journalistic activities, for which he is on trial for “sedition” and “foreign collusion.” If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison, having already spent more than three years in solitary confinement since his arrest in 2020.
The 76-year-old's case embodies the Kafkaesque nightmare that has engulfed Hong Kong since the imposition of Beijing's National Security Law (NSL) in 2020, which has been used as a weapon to stifle dissent and silence freedom of expression.
Since then, the NSL has been applied extraterritorially, with Hong Kong police offering bounties to track down pro-democracy activists who leave Hong Kong, meaning that Canadians who visit Hong Kong could theoretically be arrested in Canada for exercising their fundamental rights, whether that be posting a social media post in Vancouver, writing a news article in Toronto or attending a rally in Ottawa.
Even speaking to a Canadian who is disliked by the Hong Kong authorities can be a crime. Attending an online meeting with this article's co-author, Irwin Cotler, was cited as incriminating evidence in Lai's trial, as was the co-author's work in defense of human rights and democracy in Hong Kong. The co-author and other members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on China Affairs mentioned in the court have not been called to testify, despite active efforts to do so.
Hong Kong rewrites history with Jimmy Lai trial
Lai's trial is a mockery of justice and an illustration of the dangers of doing business in Hong Kong. From the false accusations, to the denial of access to his lawyer of his choice, to the selection of judges loyal to the Hong Kong authorities, due process and judicial independence have been blatantly violated at every stage of the legal process. At least one witness, Andy Li, a pro-democracy activist detained by the Chinese government since 2020, was allegedly tortured. Weiland Chan, once hailed as the prosecution's star witness, admitted to making false statements to the police, testifying instead that Lai had urged protesters to exercise restraint. All this reveals cracks in the facade of Beijing's concocted story.
Voices of protest against Lai's unjust persecution and prosecution have reverberated around the world, from the UK Foreign Secretary, the US Congress, the UN Special Rapporteur and the European Parliament. However, Canada has been particularly vocal as it is home to the world's largest Hong Kong diaspora and the second largest number of foreign residents in Hong Kong. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously passed motions condemning Lai's unjust detention and calling for his immediate and unconditional release. After consultation with several Cabinet members, Canada spearheaded a joint statement by the Media Freedom Coalition to condemn the attacks on press freedom and local media in Hong Kong, as epitomized by Lai's trial. Canada has also revised its business advisory warning of the risks of doing business and investing in Hong Kong in the wake of Lai's unjust trial. Also in February, the Parliamentary Subcommittee on International Human Rights held a hearing on Lai's case and media freedom in Hong Kong, bringing in expert witnesses and calling on Canada to take stronger measures on Lai's behalf, including targeted sanctions against his persecutors under the Magnitsky Act, trial monitoring, issuing travel advisories, diplomatic intervention at the United Nations and other multilateral bodies, and continued public calls for Lai's immediate release.
“Hong Kong is brazenly suppressing the fundamental freedoms of its citizens while lying to the world that it remains a jurisdiction governed by the rule of law. They do so on the assumption that democracies such as Canada will turn a blind eye because of China's economic size,” Sebastian Lai, Jimmy's son, told the subcommittee. “The authorities also gain confidence in doing so from judges in other democracies, including Canada, who continue to sit on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. My father's show trial is a blatant abuse of Hong Kong's judicial system to persecute one of its most respected defenders of democracy.”
Opinion: My father Jimmy Lai may be on trial, but it's Hong Kong's future that's on the stand
Jimmy Lai has been on the front lines of the fight for our shared democratic values. By prosecuting him for defending media freedom, Hong Kong's justice system is indicting itself. Canada's leaders and legal community must continue to speak out and work to secure his freedom.
