4 Canadians were executed by China earlier this year, Joly confirms

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says China executed four Canadians in recent months.

China’s embassy in Ottawa confirmed Wednesday that Beijing executed Canadian citizens earlier this year.

The embassy says China has solid and sufficient evidence and the facts of the crimes committed by the Canadians are clear.

Ottawa confirms the Canadians executed did not include Abbotsford, B.C. native Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling by a Chinese court in 2019.

Joly says the families have asked the government not to provide any details of the identity of the four individuals.

She says this is an issue she has been “personally” following for months and that both she and former prime minister Justin Trudeau asked China for leniency in all of the cases.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2025