By Canadian Press

Trudeau urged to champion imprisoned Chinese democracy movement founder

Sep 16, 2016 | 12:30 PM

OTTAWA — When Ti-Anna Wang of Montreal heard that fellow Canadian Kevin Garratt had been released Thursday after spending two years in a Chinese jail, she was happy for his family.

But her feelings of goodwill were quickly overwhelmed by the overriding sadness that has gripped her for the 14 years that her father, Wang Bingzhang, has been in solitary confinement in China.

With China’s premier poised to visit Ottawa next week, Wang is asking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to personally champion the case of her aging parent — whose time in Canada opened his mind to democratic freedom, and paved the way for what has been a torturous imprisonment.

“I also hope that the release of Mr. Garratt will not mean that Canada will now go easy on the Chinese government on human rights,” Wang, 27, said Friday.

“I actually think this is a good sign that they do respond to pressure and that our PM should be pressing even harder for the release of my father and other Chinese political prisoners.”

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The elder Wang was among the first generation of Chinese students permitted to travel abroad a generation ago, and got his doctorate at Montreal’s McGill University in the early 1980s.

In 2002, Chinese agents abducted him while he was on a trip to Vietnam, and brought him to China, where stood trial, in court proceeding widely derided as a sham. He is serving a life sentence in solitary confinement for trying to foster democracy in China from abroad.

It’s been eight years since Wang’s daughter has been permitted to see him, and his health has been failing.

“I’m glad for Mr. Garratt and his family,” Wang said.

“I’m glad that the PM and government are clearly pressing their Chinese counterpart on human rights issues, but I question whether or not they are doing enough on really difficult cases like that of my father’s.”

Wang does not have Canadian citizenship, but many of his family members now do. But that simply does not matter, said former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a human rights lawyer who has fought for Wang and numerous other political prisoners.

Wang has strong connections to Canada through children that were born and now live here; meanwhile the United Nations and the Canadian House of Commons have denounced his imprisonment and called for his release, said Cotler, now the head of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal.

“He was effectively inspired by Canadian democracy and the rule of the law,” said Cotler.

He said he has urged the government to intercede with the Chinese on Wang’s behalf.

“If nothing else, they should release him on humanitarian grounds,” Cotler said. “He’s suffered enough. I would hope that they allow him whatever time he has left, to be reunited with his family.”

Wang has suffered multiple strokes while in prison, and he has had no face-to-face contact with family since August 2015, when his son was permitted a visit.

“We are still exchanging sporadic letters and his writing tells us that his spirits are understandably, very low,” Ti-Anna Wang said Friday.

“His only chance of release is if the PM prioritizes, specifically requests/demands and personally negotiates my father’s release. Anything short of that will simply not be enough.”

Trudeau’s office did not initially respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press