Jimmy Lai could well have decamped to Canada as the Chinese Communist Party started strangling Hong Kong’s freedoms four years ago.

The publisher of the fiercely independent, pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper — effectively shut down by the government three years ago — owns hotels in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., and has a twin sister and other family members here, son Sebastien noted this week on a stopover in Toronto. Sebastien himself says he has fond memories of visiting Canada as a child. This is where he learned English and attended summer camp in Ontario cottage country.