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.”

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.

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.

Gong practitioners who had been illegally detained.

The high-risk status prevents St-Amand from leaving the psychiatric hospital where he is being detained except for medical reasons or for the purposes of his treatment.

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.

A Canadian couple, Kevin and Julia Garratt, were detained in Dandong, China in early August for "theft of state secrets" and have been detained ever since. 

China first detained former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor days later.

In theory, in addition to the 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong, any Canadian who travels to or transits through Hong Kong are at risk of being arbitrarily detained under the law if they’ve said or done anything that could anger Beijing, several experts

Days later on Dec. 10, Kovrig and Spavor were detained on baseless charges in China.

Read full story China’s Huawei Executive Seeks Bail in US Extradition Case Meng Wanzhou, the detained CFO of Huawei, is seeking bail in Canada on concerns for her health. However, Canadian prosecutors have argued she can't be trusted.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report. 

Cheng’s detention and that of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by the Chinese regime after the Canadian government arrested Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in 2018.

Last week, McCallum provided updates on the condition of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor detained in China, saying they face up to four hours of interrogation per day.

Several years later, the Chinese regime allegedly began harvesting organs from detained Falun Gong adherents.

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas has condemned the CCP’s brutality and describes the state-sanctioned seizures of organs from Falun Gong practitioners as “a form of evil we have yet to see on this planet.”