More MacKay Missteps

Peter MacKay tried to bolster his sinking reputation on Monday by announcing that Canada had been assured, as a result of meetings held in China last week, that Huseyin Celil would not be executed.

Enter one of MacKay's aides:

Huseyin Celil of Burlington, who was arrested in March in Uzbekistan, is being held on suspicion of terrorism.

"We've already received a guarantee that (China) would not pursue the death penalty," MacKay said outside the Commons, adding the guarantee was evidence Canada was making headway with the Chinese government.

"So already we've made incremental progress in protecting this individual. And we're going to continue to take steps to try to gain consular access for him."

However, a spokesman for MacKay said later Canada never received a direct assurance, but that the minister meant Beijing would live up to a commitment it made to Uzbekistan when it asked that Celil be sent to China.

"China assured Uzbekistan when it asked for him to be turned over that it would not execute him. (MacKay) considers that an international obligation which China will be held to," Dan Dugas said.

The Toronto Star has more about what really went on in China:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Asian debut was painful to watch...
[...]
Chinese President Hu Jintao cold-shouldered Harper, denying him the substantive private meeting he needed to press effectively for change. When Hu relented Saturday, it was only to accord Harper a 15-minute chat at a reception before dinner. And while Harper seized the opportunity to raise the case of Canadian Huseyin Celil, jailed by China as a terrorist, he got no real hearing, and came away with no reassurance from Hu.

The fact that this government is now trying to rewrite history by claiming that the Chinese leaders did, in fact, promise that Celil would not be executed as a result of anything they did rather than the assurances made to Uzbekistan shows how willing they are to continue to manipulate the truth for their own political ends - this time using the life of a Canadian in peril overseas to do so.