Madam Speaker, for more than a year now Canadian citizens John Chang and his wife Allison Lu have been held in jail by China's general administration of customs. Their company, Lulu Island Winery in B.C., has successfully exported to China for some six years, so they know the system well. The arrest of Mr. Chang and Ms. Lu for a fabricated customs violation is an assault on their basic rights, a breach of China's international trade obligations and China's own customs laws. This is clearly a trade issue, not a consular issue.
Why will the Prime Minister not intervene in this new era of the Canada-China relationship?