The fight to free the Michaels: Canada's ambassador to the U.S. describes the months before their release

About a month before two Canadians detained in China were flown home in a sudden move that stunned observers of Canada-China relations, Beijing was sending signals to Canadian diplomats that it was moving closer to a resolution on the file.

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the United States, said the shift by Chinese officials was matched by increasing international pressure to resolve the cases of MichaelSpavorand MichaelKovrig.

"At the same time, we doubled down on our advocacy. We tripled down on our advocacy not just us, but the U.S. and all of our partners," Hillman said in an interview onCBCRadio'sThe House.

"I think it became clear to China that they wanted to put this behind them because it was just going to get worse and worse if they didn't resolve this matter."

SpavorandKovrigwere arrested in China in December 2018, just days after Chinese tech executiveMengWanzhouwas arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Kovrig and Spavorwere released just hours afterMengresolved her American legal case through a deferred prosecution agreement. That ended the extradition case againstMeng, who had been on house arrest in Vancouver. She boarded a plane for China that same day.

Hillman has been working at the Canadian embassy in Washington since 2017. She said she raised the case of the two detaineesin virtually every meeting she had with the American administration and other decision-makers over the past twoand a half years.

"There wasn't a single conversation of consequence that I had where I didn't put this matter on the front burner,"she said.

Hillman said, however, that she never had direct contact with Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general,and that no "quid pro quo"was reached to releaseSpavorandKovrigin exchange forMeng.

A late summer diplomatic thaw

Hillman described what she called"a coordination" on the detainees' file.By late summer, when it appeared that officials in Beijing were warming to the idea of releasingSpavorandKovrig,she said she was also hearing that a deal betweenMengand U.S. justice officials was getting closer.

Few details have been released about the sorts of diplomatic conversations that took place betweenCanada, China and the U.S. in the weeks and days before Sept. 24, when Spavor, Kovrig and Meng all boarded flights to their respective homes.

Hillman said that while she understands the strong publicinterest in the affair,there's a strategy behind the limited information that's been made public.

"The relationships that we built, in particular in Washington and Beijing, that allowed us to bring this all together, they're very important,"she said.

"We have to maintain the trust of those people who helped us get to the place where we could bring theMichaelshome safely. We need to protect (these relationships) because we have channels of communication that need to remain open, to solve other problems and deal with other issues."

Meanwhile, otherCanadians such asUyghur-CanadianHuseyinCelilremain imprisoned in China. Hillman said his case is one that needs to be discussed through those "important"international relationships.

The leaders of Canada, the U.S.and China will all meet face-to-face during the upcomingG20summit in Rome at the end of the month.

Hillman said the imprisonment ofSpavorandKovrigwill have an impact on China's conduct in the future.

"I think China has understood that the act that they tookvis-a-vistheMichaelshas galvanized international condemnation of this tactic. I think that mattered,"Hillman said.

"Can I say they'd never do it again? I certainly wouldn't want to speculate. But there's no question in my mind that they understand that this behaviour has led to sustained and serious condemnation bythe international community."