Alberta teacher back in Canada after arrest in China

OTTAWA — Albertan Sarah McIver has been released from custody in China, Global Affairs Canada says.

McIver had been detained over a work-permit issue related to her teaching job.

The department didn’t say when McIver was released, or when she returned to Canada.

“Global Affairs can confirm that a Canadian citizen, who was detained in China this month, has been released and has now returned to Canada,” spokesperson Richard Walker said Friday.

“Due to the provisions under the Privacy Act, no further information can be disclosed,” he said.

McIver’s arrest followed those of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians living and working in China, on allegations they were harming China’s national security.

China arrested Kovrig and Spavor separately after Canadian authorities detained a Chinese technology executive in Vancouver. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of electronics giant Huawei Technologies, is wanted in the United States on allegations she lied to American banks as part of an effort to get around sanctions on Iran.

China and Canada insisted McIver’s case was different from Kovrig’s and Spavor’s.

Kovrig is a Canadian diplomat on leave from the foreign service to work with the antiwar International Crisis Group, travelling through China as a researcher and analyst.

Spavor has run an organization promoting business and cultural ties with North Korea.

Chinese officials have not quite said that Kovrig and Spavor are in custody in retaliation for Meng’s arrest on the U.S. extradition request, but they have pointedly linked the cases — insisting that Meng’s arrest was illegal and an international affront, while Kovrig and Spavor have been detained properly under Chinese law.