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OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and MPs from both sides of the aisle are calling on China to release Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday under a sweeping national security law.
Human rights activists are also calling on Ottawa to do more to advocate for Lai, a British and Chinese citizen who has family in Canada.
Lai, who founded a newspaper critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, was convicted on charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles.
“Canada is disappointed with the sentencing of pro-democracy media figure Jimmy Lai today in Hong Kong,” Anand wrote in a statement.
“Mr. Lai is 78 years old and in poor health and we call for his immediate humanitarian release. Canada will continue to support free and independent media worldwide.”
Her statement followed similar comments from numerous peers, including the United States and the European Union.
China has dismissed pro-democracy protests as western-fuelled riots meant to destabilize Beijing and has accused Lai of trying to incite hatred and “poison” residents of the territory, which had a free press when it was a British colony.
The federal Conservatives argued the sentencing violates the treaty Britain and China signed in the 1997 handover of the territory to Chinese rule, which called for 50 years of autonomy, freedom of speech and assembly.
“Sentencing Mr. Lai, who is 78 years old, for nothing more than exercising his rights and freedoms is evidence of the erosion of Hong Kong’s civil liberties and the rule of law,” wrote Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, who called for Lai’s immediate release.
Conservative MP Dean Allison said Canada should reconsider its recent commitment to deeper ties with Beijing, while MP Garnett Genuis called the sentencing “heartbreaking.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, called Lai ” a prisoner of conscience” whose conviction marks “another devastating escalation in the systematic dismantling of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong.”
She called on Ottawa to “work with our international partners to secure a humanitarian medical release to Canada, so that Mr. Lai can receive the proper care he requires and be reunited with his family in a place where his contributions and his rights are respected.”
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights has urged Ottawa to do more and reposted Anand’s statement on social media.
“We too are disappointed, that those who could choose to act with conviction on his behalf do not,” the centre wrote.
The group’s statement noted the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China has said the Lai case will set a precedent on whether breaching a globally recognized treaty carries consequences.
“The erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms has been enabled by the international community’s prolonged failure to hold China to account for its violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a legally binding treaty registered with the United Nations,” the centre wrote.
China’s foreign ministry called Lai “the mastermind and perpetrator behind the riots that shook Hong Kong,” referring to protests against the national security law being used to prosecute the territory’s leading democracy activists.
“Relevant countries should respect China’s sovereignty and the rule of law in Hong Kong, stop making any irresponsible remarks on the Hong Kong (region’s) handling of the case, and not interfere in Hong Kong’s judicial affairs and China’s internal affairs.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
