Radio host jailed for sedition in Hong Kong finds a home and freedom in Canada

Edmund Wan moved to British Columbia last month after spending almost two years in Hong Kong's Shek Pik and Stanley prisons, having admitted charges of sedition and money laundering that rights group Amnesty International says were politically motivated. But he said his fight continues in Canada.

Edmund Wan, recently released from a Hong Kong prison, says he feels at ease in Vancouver.

He described the sense of familiarity that struck him in a Hong Kong-style cafe on Vancouver's Cambie Street -- the smell of baked pork chops on rice, the background noise of people joking in Cantonese.

But there was something else that Wan says people in Hong Kong can no longer take for granted -- the ability to talk freely and without fear in public.

Wan, 55, is better known as the former Hong Kong radio personality Giggs, a prominent voice of support for the city's pro-democracy protest movement.

"I hear people chatting in Cantonese no matter where I go, especially in Richmond and Burnaby's food courts where they say 'hey' after recognizing me," Wan said in an interview in Mandarin, in which he is also fluent.

"I am fully enjoying my life in Canada."

Wan moved to British Columbia last month after spending almost two years in Hong Kong's Shek Pik and Stanley prisons, having admitted charges of sedition and money laundering that rights group Amnesty International says were politically motivated.