Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland held her first phone call with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday. Among the range of issues they talked about were the various aspects of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the close economic ties between the two countries, and the importance of free flowing trade and investment. According to a government statement, the two highlighted the Chinese regime’s “unacceptable” imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. They agreed to continue to demand the two men’s immediate release. Kovrig and Spavor are being held on baseless charges of stealing state secrets, and have been detained in China since Dec. 10, 2018. Their detention is widely considered a hostile retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei’s senior executive Meng Wanzhou nine days earlier at the request of the United States. Meng is under house arrest in Vancouver as her extradition case makes its way through court. …