McNeil and Lu were both scheduled to speak on Wednesday evening at the launch of a new Halifax branch of the Canada-China Business Council. According to a March press release from the provincial government, Nova Scotia shipped $524 million of seafood to China in 2018, an increase of 36 per cent over the previous year. Freeland’s parliamentary secretary Rob Oliphant was in China last week with a delegation and raised the cases directly with the Chinese officials he met. But for months the Canadian government has been unable to secure high-level meetings, or even phone calls. She extended another invitation via her committee testimony, saying, “we are prepared for that conversation at any time.”— with files from The Canadian Press.

Source: National Post May 29, 2019 21:31 UTC