Three Canadians who were arrested by Chinese police following a protest at the Great Wall against China's presence in Tibet are expected to arrive in Canada Thursday.

The British Columbian activists — Lhadon Tethong, Sam Price and Melanie Raoul — were deported from China after their release on Wednesday and flew into Hong Kong.

Raoul and Price, both of Vancouver, were due to arrive there midday Thursday, while Tethong, who now lives in New York, is due to touch down in Toronto in the evening.

Raoul and Price were arrested Tuesday after they unfurled a 42-square-metre banner reading "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008" in English and Chinese from the Great Wall.

The banner adds three words — "Free Tibet 2008" — to the official slogan of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which are set to begin one year from Tuesday.

"It was draining, exhausting, psychologically traumatizing, although we weren't physically hurt," Raoul, 25, told CBC News from Hong Kong about her experience.

Tethong, 31, was arrested Wednesday. She was not directly involved in the Great Wall protest, but spent her time in China writing a blog, and posting videos and photos online about what the group calls China's "propaganda campaign" leading up to next year's Olympic Games.

Five other activists — two from the U.K and three from the United States — were also arrested and released.

All the activists are part of Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based group for which Tethong serves as executive director.

Tethong said the group knew their actions on the Great Wall weren't legal and that arrests were a possibility.

"We knew that was the most likely scenario, but it's not like it was the goal of what we were doing. The goal was to raise the issue." said Tethong, a Tibetan-Canadian who was born and raised in Victoria, but now lives in New York. 

"Some people might think that's sort of extreme, but we would say China violating the fundamental human rights of Tibetans and their own people and the cultural genocide of Tibet is extreme."

Police surrounded Tethong in front of an Olympic merchandise store in Beijing and demanded to see her passport. They brought her into a police station, where they showed her printouts of her blog.

"They definitely took jabs at me for being Tibetan," Tethong said. "They were saying I have an accent like a Chinese and I have blood from China."

The incident drew international attention, with videos of the Great Wall protest posted on YouTube.

The Students for a Free Tibet group wants Tibet freed from China and say the Chinese government is using the Games to gain international acceptance.

The group also wants the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to push the case for Tibetan freedom.

China invaded Tibet in 1950, and in 1999 declared it to be an "inseparable part of China." In 2004, a government policy paper said Tibet had always been part of China, and before the Chinese imposed direct rule, Tibet was "even darker and more backward than medieval Europe."

With files from the Canadian Press