Global Affairs official asks Ottawa company to tone down ‘alarmist’ warning over travel to China
The firm’s co-owner pointed out he runs a private company and is under no obligation to change his warning. ‘I wouldn’t let a family member go right now to China'
Feb 7 2019
The federal government has asked an Ottawa-based travel services company to change its warning to clients about visiting China because it is too alarmist.
But the co-owner of the firm has refused, saying Global Affairs Canada is trying to downplay the travel danger to appease the Chinese government and has no right to tell a private company how it communicates with its clients.
Relations between China and Canada have hit a new low after the Trudeau government acted on a warrant to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou while she was travelling through the Vancouver airport on Dec. 1. The U.S. government wants to extradite Meng, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder, so she can face charges related to Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.
In the aftermath of her arrest the Chinese government seized two Canadians, claiming they were engaging in activities that endangered China’s national security. The men are interrogated for four hours a day and have no access to a lawyer.
China also sentenced another Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, to death in a sudden retrial of his drug-smuggling case. Another Canadian woman was briefly detained by Chinese authorities while transiting through Beijing’s airport enroute from South Korea to Canada.
As a result, Visa Services Canada, a company that provides travel documentation support to Canadians, issued a warning on its website about travel to China. The firm’s website noted that, “The Canadian government urges you to ‘exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.’
“According to Canadian and U.S. diplomats the Chinese regime has been arresting Canadians to use as hostages in an attempt to force the government of Canada to release Ms. Meng who is the subject of an extradition attempt by the U.S.A.,” the warning added.
John Clearwater, a co-owner of Visa Services Canada, said he was surprised to receive a phone call on Tuesday from an official in Global Affairs Canada’s China bureau. “She wanted us to change our website to soft pedal the warning,” Clearwater said. “She said it was too alarmist and (the government) is trying to calm down the situation.”
Clearwater pointed out to the Global Affairs Canada official that he runs a private company and is under no obligation to change his warning. “I wouldn’t let a family member go right now to China,” said Clearwater, who visited the country several months ago. “Why risk it?”
Global Affairs Canada did not provide a comment on the incident.
But a federal government official speaking on background confirmed to Postmedia that a department bureaucrat did phone the company but only to provide “advice” on the government’s current travel warning wording being used for China. The official could not comment on why Global Affairs Canada would contact a private firm that has nothing to do with the federal government.
Clearwater said he did change the website warning but only to add that a Canadian government official had tried to pressure the company in altering the wording to downplay the risks.
Clearwater said he has filed a formal complaint about the bureaucrat’s actions to Global Affairs Canada’s Deputy Minister Ian Shugart, asking under what authority his department was acting when they made the call.
Clearwater’s firm, which helps arrange visas to travel to various countries, had been doing a brisk business providing support to those individuals going to China. However, the detainment of Canadians in that country has prompted a significant drop in the number of people wanting visas to visit that nation, Clearwater said.
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