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WORLD NEWS Saturday 27 June 2020

Canada's Trudeau rules

out releasing Huawei

tech executive

In this Wednesday, June 10, 2020 file photo, a statue of Belgium's King Leopold II is smeared with
red paint and graffiti in Brussels.
Associated Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference
on the COVID-19 pandemic outside his residence at Rideau Mixed-race women sue Belgium
Cottage in Ottawa, Thursday, June 18, 2020.
Associated Press for crimes against humanity

By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press By SAMUEL PETREQUIN prime minister, Charles away at the request of the
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Associated Press Michel, apologised to the Belgian colonial adminis-
on Thursday ruled out releasing a top Chinese tech exec- BRUSSELS (AP) — Five métis children who were tration, in cooperation with
utive in an attempt to win the release of two Canadians mixed-race women born kidnapped toward the the local Catholic church
detained by Beijing. in Congo when the coun- end of the colonization pe- authorities.
Trudeau said releasing Huawei's Meng Wanzhou would try was under Belgian rule riod in the 1940s and 1950s. "Their fathers were white
tell China that it can get want it wants by arresting Cana- who were taken away The five women, all born and did not legally recog-
dians. He said it would put more Canadian citizens at risk from their Black mothers between 1945 and 1950, nize their child," Hirsch said.
by signaling Canada can be intimidated. have filed a lawsuit for filed their lawsuit as the According to the legal
"Randomly arresting Canadians doesn't give you lever- crimes against humanity Democratic Republic of documents, in all five cas-
age over the government of Canada," Trudeau said. targeting the Belgian state. Congo prepares to cel- es the fathers did not exer-
Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei and daughter With their claim, they hope ebrate the 60th anniver- cise parental authority and
of the company's founder, was arrested by Canadian au- Belgium will finally recog- sary of the country's inde- the Belgian administration
thorities at Vancouver's airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants nize its responsibility in the pendence amid growing threatened the children's
her extradited to face fraud charges, and her arrest infuri- suffering endured by the demands that Belgium re- Congolese families with re-
ated Beijing. thousands of mixed-race assess its colonial past. In prisals if they refused to let
In what is widely believed to be an attempt to pressure children, known as "métis," the wake of the protests them go.
Canada to release Meng, China arrested former Canadi- who were snatched away against racial inequality The children were placed
an diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur from families and placed in the United States, sev- at a religious mission in
Michael Spavor and charged them with spying. in religious institutions and eral statues of King Leo- Katende, in the province
"We deplore what China did in arbitrarily detaining the homes. pold II, who is blamed for of Kasai, with the Sisters
two Michaels, in directly linking those arrests," Trudeau "This systematic policy of the deaths of millions of of Saint Vincent de Paul.
said. racially motivated abduc- Africans during Belgium's There, they lived with some
A letter to Trudeau signed by 19 former Canadian politi- tion is a crime against hu- colonial rule, have been 20 other mixed-race girls
cians and diplomats urges that Meng be freed in a bid to manity," Michele Hirsch, sprayed with paint, while and Indigenous orphans in
win the release of the detained Canadians. Signatories a lawyer for the women, a petition called for the very hard conditions.
to the letter include former ministers in Trudeau's Liberal told The Associated Press country to remove all stat- "They arrived without
party as well as former Conservative minister Lawrence on Friday. "It is not enough ues of the former king. clothes or shoes, hav-
Cannon. to say: 'We apologize.' Re- Hirsch said the five women ing lost all their affective
"I deeply disagree with them," Trudeau said. "We cannot ality has to be taken into — four who now live in Bel- bonds," Hirsch said. "Some
allow political pressures or random arrests of Canadian account. Their lives have gium and one in France — children were allowed to
citizens to influence the functioning of our justice system. been shattered." were aged between 2 and go to school, but they also
So I respect these individuals, but they're wrong."q Last year, Belgium's then- 4 when they were taken needed to work."q