{"id":954696,"date":"2026-11-01T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954696\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T20:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T20:02:09","slug":"twenty-years-on-supporters-of-jailed-canadian-huseyin-celil-havent-given-up-hope-of-freeing-him-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954696\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty years on, supporters of jailed Canadian Huseyin Celil haven\u2019t given up hope of freeing him from China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Huseyin Celil and one of his youngest children in a photo taken shortly before his arrest in 2006.<\/p>\n

It has been 20 years since Canadian Huseyin Celil was detained in Uzbekistan and ultimately deported to China<\/a>, where he has been jailed ever since, a legal and diplomatic saga that has bedevilled three consecutive Canadian governments.<\/p>\n

A Uyghur political activist who grew up in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region, Mr. Celil was convicted on charges of terrorism and separatism in 2007 over the staunch objections of Ottawa and human-rights groups. Beijing has always refused to recognize his Canadian citizenship, despite supporters saying Mr. Celil renounced his Chinese passport prior to his arrest. <\/p>\n

Originally sentenced to life, in 2016 he was among a group of 11 Uyghurs who saw their sentences reduced \u2212 in his case to 20 years, starting in 2018 \u2212 after they \u201chad confessed their crimes and shown remorse,\u201d according to a contemporaneous Chinese state media report, which held them up as an example of a successful \u201cderadicalization\u201d program. <\/p>\n

The following year, that \u201cderadicalization\u201d approach would be applied across Xinjiang as a whole<\/a>, as hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs were processed through a sprawling network of what the Chinese government would ultimately term<\/a> \u201cvocational educational and employment training centres,\u201d but which outside observers have denounced as re-education facilities. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Visa-free visits to China are a risk for Canadians<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2021, Parliament voted unanimously to declare that China\u2019s actions in Xinjiang constituted a genocide against the Uyghur population. The vote, along with the detention of two other Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, saw relations with China enter a deep freeze, which has only begun to thaw since Mark Carney<\/a> became Prime Minister. <\/p>\n

With Mr. Carney due to travel to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen next month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference, after a hugely successful state visit to Beijing in January, supporters of Mr. Celil see this as an ideal opportunity to push the Chinese government on his case, which has been largely dormant for a decade now since his resentencing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe campaign to free Huseyin Celil is as vibrant as ever, because of his family\u2019s refusal to give up and their supporters\u2019 insistence on invoking his name any chance they get,\u201d said Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada. \u201cThey have kept the flame of hope alive and sent Canadian officials an unequivocal message: We will demand justice and answers for as long as it takes, and we expect our leaders to do the same on the world stage.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Huseyin Celil’s sister, 39-year-old Heyrigul Celil, and his mother, 75-year-old Shalehan Spander.Geoffrey York\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Wilf Ruland, a co-ordinator of the Huseyin Celil Action Network, which lobbies on behalf of Mr. Celil\u2019s family in Canada, said Ottawa\u2019s engagement \u201chas waxed and waned over the 20 years since his arrest and sentencing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can only see what the government tells us it is doing on the case \u2212 we don\u2019t know what is happening behind the scenes in terms of the Canadian government putting pressure on China to release Mr. Celil,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly, the Harper government was very active and engaged in pressuring China on this case, probably more so than any government since then.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thida Ith, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said Ottawa continues to advocate on behalf of Mr. Celil with Chinese officials and provides consular assistance to his family in Canada. She declined to provide any further details, citing privacy considerations. <\/p>\n

The Canadian government was similarly reticent about Mr. Celil\u2019s situation when podcaster Yusuf Zine began working on a series about his detention<\/a> for broadcaster TVO, which brought renewed attention to the case upon its release in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s jumping through hoops that lead you to nowhere,\u201d Mr. Zine said of trying to get information out of Global Affairs. \u201cWe expected it from the Chinese government. We certainly didn\u2019t expect it as much from the Canadian government.\u201d <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kamila Telendibaeva leads a protest for the release of her husband Huseyin Celil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Toronto in July, 2006.Kevin Van Paassen\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

With so much uncertainty surrounding the case \u2212 Mr. Zine and his producers didn\u2019t even know if Mr. Celil was still alive \u2212 they were able to track him down to a prison in Xinjiang, where a member of the staff appeared to confirm he was still being held, though he refused to allow anyone but members of Mr. Celil\u2019s family to send him a message. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the goal of the podcast was to create enough noise. We hoped the Canadian government would sort of say, \u2018We have to look into this,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIf they did, we have not heard about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Similarly, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, a long-time critic of consecutive Liberal governments\u2019 approach to China and an advocate for Mr. Celil, said he has received \u201cno additional information\u201d about what Ottawa is doing on his behalf. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur office is in the process of submitting a written question to the Canadian government on his case, identifying the Carney government\u2019s intended approach going forward,\u201d Mr. Genuis said. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the government\u2019s response to this case does not match the intensity of their response to the detention of the Two Michaels. My view is that a Canadian is a Canadian, and the government should be fully and sharply engaged to secure Mr. Celil\u2019s release.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Huseyin Celil and one of his youngest children in a photo taken shortly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-954696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}