Party leaders call on Nova Scotia to decrease dependence on exports to China

After a Canadian was sentenced to 11 years in a Chinese prison in what federal officials here have called arbitrary circumstances, two of Nova Scotia's main party leaders say it's time for this province to become less dependent on China as an export market.

Michael Spavor was sentenced on Tuesday after being found guilty of espionage.

He and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig have been in custody since late 2018 in what officials here view as retaliatory measures by the Chinese government following the arrest of Hauwei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a warrant from the U.S.

Nova Scotia's trade relationship with China ballooned after Liberal Stephen McNeil became premier in 2013.

He made eight trips to the country to promote business and trade grew from $197 million in 2013 to $1 billion in 2019. Of that, $727 million was related to seafood, mostly lobster.

Despite the arrests of Spavor and Kovrig and other concerns about human rights violations, McNeil defended the trips, saying the diplomatic issues were for the federal government to address and that isolationism wasn't a productive approach, a position Iain Rankin also advanced when he became premier earlier this year.

A federal issue

Speaking to CBC in Cape Breton on Wednesday, Rankin struck a similar tone to his predecessor.

"Of course it bothers me that any Canadian that's not treated fairly in a different country. That's for the federal government to ensure that they address that," he said.

"We continue to ensure we have markets open across the entire world for our exports and everybody should ensure that we know that we have our best interests for our exporters at heart and our products are second to none, so we'll continue to grow those exports in every country."

NDP Leader Gary Burrill said the position of McNeil and Rankin suggests the "persecution of Canadians is of no relevance for" the provincial government.

"I think this has always been a small and a shortsighted vision and it seems to me that the provincial government, whenever it is present in trade negotiations with China, needs to have top of mind the difficulty of Canadian citizens in that country," he said.

"We cannot, as a Nova Scotia government, ever represent ourselves in China without an awareness that we are on troubled ground from the point of view of human rights concerns."

'We can do better'

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston called the circumstances of Spavor, Kovrig and others are facing in China "terrifying."

Houston said Nova Scotia has great products and it's up to the provincial government to get them to enough different markets that the province isn't too dependent on any single area.

"It's a big world," he said.

"Yes, [China] is a big market, but there are lots of markets.… Putting all of our eggs in one basket with a country where so many human rights abuses are happening — we can do better."

Spavor's sentence came the day after a Chinese court upheld the death penalty sentence for Canadian Robert Schellenberg for drug smuggling. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau has called for China to grant Schellenberg clemency.

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