Brian Gold: My friend, everyday Canadian hero Michael Spavor
Credit to Author: Hardip Johal| Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 19:55:17 +0000
Before the Canadian government identified Michael Spavor as one of the “two Michaels” detained by the Chinese authorities on Dec. 10, 2018, I was concerned that something was wrong from social media posts by other friends.
Shared friends in South Korea were expecting to have a fun night out with Michael as he arrived there from North Korea (via China) and were anxious when he didn’t show. There had already been vague reports that one or two unknown Canadians had been detained, and we were hoping against hope that it couldn’t be our buddy.
Ever since the worst was confirmed, the foremost feeling is of deep anxiety regarding Michael’s well-being. There is also prayerful hoping that he is restored to freedom and home immediately. It has been deeply surreal to see constant national and worldwide headlines invoking the name of one of my colleagues and good friends. The conditions under which he is presently being held do not bear close thinking about.
I met Michael in 2013 at the University of Calgary while I was teaching there for a year. Calgary is his hometown and he is a graduate of the university. We became good friends immediately, sharing Albertan roots and a professional interest in North Korean history and society. We ended up taking two research trips to North Korea together, the last in late 2018, one of the last tours to North Korea that Michael organized before his detention.
Like a lot of Canadians, Michael in his youth decided to seek work experience and adventure by spending a few years teaching English in a foreign country. Whereas the vast majority of young Canadians teaching English in Korea end up only in modern, democratic South Korea, Michael was amongst a tiny handful of Westerners who in addition ventured to the remote North. Primarily self-taught, Michael quickly achieved native speaker fluency in Korean, including mastery of the North Korean dialect.
In short, Michael fell in love with Korea, its people, and its ancient culture, North and South. Over the last two decades he has worked and spent his own funds to preserve heritage sites in both North and South Korea. Michael loves hockey and has encouraged its development in Korea. He has also facilitated much needed aid directly reaching impoverished rural North Korean children.
In our last phone conversation two weeks before his detention, he talked about further plans to help these poor children and, poignantly, his desire to get home to Calgary and spend a much longer time with his family than he had been able to arrange for a long time.
I know first-hand Michael’s extremely gregarious and charismatic nature, his ability to befriend anyone, from any culture. Even knowing this, I was surprised this last year by the number of good friends Michael has around the globe, aiding his efforts to be released, and even setting up a Go Fund Me page to support him.
Underneath his carefree, extroverted manner, however, Michael has iron mental self-discipline and stoic patience which I can only assume is now being tested to its limits daily. Michael always has a dozen projects on the go and commits himself to making the best of what life gives him. This self-discipline allowed him to be mostly self-taught in mastering Korean, and I imagine that, as much as is possible given the circumstances, Michael is applying the same focus on improving the almost non-existent Chinese language skills he had when he was detained over 410 long days ago.
I look forward to seeing Michael dazzle Chinese speakers with his newfound ability when we share a beer together in Calgary, with no ill will on his part towards anyone. I look forward to an everyday Canadian hero coming home.
Brian Gold teaches East Asian history at the University of Alberta.
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