The Canadian Press contributed to this report.

"But make no mistake: we will always defend Canadians and Canadian interests."

Jennifer Cowan and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.

For more than a quarter century, practitioners of the meditation discipline, whose core principles are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, have been illegally arrested and detained by the CCP and have experienced abuses such as sexual assault and

A Canadian government website says the practice is contrary to international law and undermines friendly relations between states, global cooperation, travel and trade.

Beijing has denied allegations about internment camps that have reportedly arbitrarily detained over 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims living in the Xinjiang region, insisting that the camps are for providing vocational training.

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor remain jailed in China, and last week a fourth Canadian was given the death penalty on drug charges in that country since Canada detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018.

Additionally, more than one million Uyghurs are being detained in internment camps—facilities the communist regime has defended as “vocational training schools.”

Two Canadian citizens in China, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were detained by the regime shortly after Meng's arrest, a move widely seen as an attempt by the regime to put pressure on Ottawa for Meng's release.

That year, Global Affairs Canada called on the country to "immediately release" detained women's rights and democracy activists.

The defendants include four Mexicans, a Canadian and an American identified as 44-year-old Mark Swidan. Swidan’s mother, Katherine Swidan, told KTRK-TV in Houston that her son has been detained since his arrest in 2012.

The men, who have become known as the "two Michaels," were detained in December 2018, days after Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request from the United States.

That followed a report by Hong Kong Watch alleging that a number of pension funds have investments in firms involved in China's Xinjiang region, where the Uyghur people have been detained in camps.

Under that deal, Beijing released two Canadian citizens in exchange for the United States giving up an extradition request for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei, who had been detained in Canada.

“As a Canadian, though, are you comfortable with calling the detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor political and it’s just pointing fingers?” Stephenson asked. “They were arbitrarily detained. So I guess I’ll put it to you right now.

Amery will be working with Mike Ellis, public safety minister, to develop strategies to address the province's rising crime, specifically “to ensure violent criminals and gang members are detained and effectively prosecuted.”

Lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada are asking the Court of Appeal for Ontario to order that 62-year-old Deepak Paradkar be detained until his extradition hearing.

Two sources familiar with the details said he had been detained but agreed to say he was unwell.

Chinese Canadian politician Richard Lee, the deputy speaker for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, was detained for eight hours upon his arrival at a Shanghai airport in 2015 over activities “endangering national security.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement that the four judges had “directly engaged in efforts” to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel “without the consent of either nation.”

"The communist party is not just targeting Falun Gong, it is targeting Canadian values and the morality and conscience of all Canadian government officials and Canadian citizens," Chipkar said.

Han Fei, who arrived in the UK in 2023, said that she underwent a CT scan, ultrasound, and blood tests while she was detained in Beijing.

"As the brilliant Canadian Supreme Court Justice (Rosalie) Abella once said, what matters is not what you stand for, but what you stand up for,'' said Clooney.

Other victims include Canadian businesswoman and Falun Gong practitioner Sun Qian, who is now two years into her eight-year sentence after CCP authorities forced her to renounce her Canadian citizenship, Canadian businessman Xiao Jianhua, and Canadian

(The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) A new reverse onus provision is also added to these offenders, meaning they will be detained while awaiting trial unless they can prove they are not a flight risk or a public safety threat.

Gong practitioners who had been illegally detained.

And U.S. customs officials seized 13 tons of hair products suspected to have been made by detained Uyghurs in China. There’s also suspicion that the beauty products were made from human hair.

A man holds a sign bearing photographs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been detained in China, in Vancouver on Jan. 21, 2020.

Canadians know that the regime currently has at least one million Uighur Muslims detained against their will in concentration camps. They know how ruthless and deadly the CCP campaign has been against peaceful Tibet.

A young man holds a sign bearing photographs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been detained in China for more than a year, outside B.C.