Canada PM under pressure over detained couple on China visit

Beijing: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper came under increased pressure on Sunday as the son of a Canadian couple detained in China said he was not sure Canada was doing enough to help his parents.

And the opposition leader said Harper should be speaking publicly about the case while he is in Beijing.

In China as part of a five-day trip to boost trade and improve diplomatic relations, Harper has not spoken publicly about the detention of Kevin and Julia Garratt, who have been held for suspected theft of military and intelligence information and for threatening national security.

The couple, long time residents of China, operated a coffee shop near the sensitive North Korean border before they were detained in August.

"From my perspective, I’d like to see the Canadian government putting pressure on to resolve this as soon as possible," Simeon Garratt, the son of the couple, told Reuters in an interview in Beijing. "I don’t know if enough is being done."

Garratt's visit to Beijing from his home in Vancouver coincides with Harper’s first visit to China in two years.

Garratt said he has met Canadian consular officials in Beijing and would now travel north to Dandong, near the North Korean border, to help sell his parents' coffee shop and try to get a message to them. Family members have not yet been able to visit the Garratts, who are being held separately.

Canadian media traveling with Harper raised the Garratt issue at a news conference on Saturday following the bilateral meetings between Harper and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who sits on the elite Politburo Standing Committee of the ruling Communist Party. Li spoke about the case but Harper did not.

"As for the case, I want to reiterate that China is a country ruled by law, and is developing its legal institutions. The judicial authorities in China will handle the case in accordance with the law. At the same time the legal rights and interests of the people concerned will be protected," Li said.

"The governments of the two countries have also discussed and negotiated visits by consular officials," he said.

A spokesman for Harper said later the prime minister had raised the issue during his meeting with Li, but the leader of Canada's left-leaning official opposition said Harper’s silence was disappointing.

"Mr. Harper's trip to China has been most notable for what he hasn't done. It's very disappointing that he has failed to speak up publicly for the Garratts," Thomas Mulcair told reporters. "On this trip, the Chinese government has been more forthcoming than Mr. Harper."

James Zimmerman, a lawyer retained by the Garratt family, said he knew that Harper had pressed the issue with "multiple layers of the Chinese government" and both the Canadian embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been pressing for a resolution.

But he said the economic focus of Harper's mission to China did not lessen the diplomatic problem represented by the Garratts.

"While we are pleased by the trade and business deals that have been reached by Canada and China, the relationship will still be clouded by the ongoing detention of the Garratts," Zimmerman said in an email.

Simeon Garratt said he was concerned for the health of his father.

"Dad injured his leg quite badly from not being able to move and go outside," he said. "I'm also worried about their mental health, being held in isolation, what effect that is going to have on them."

The detention of the Garratts came less than a week after Canada accused Chinese hackers of breaking into a key computer network, the first time it has ever singled out China for such a security breach. Beijing dismissed the allegations as "irresponsible."