Deal or no deal, Canada should let Meng Wanzhou go

By Paul Russell, LegalMatters Staff • Reports that the U.S. Justice Department has reached out to Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers about a deal to allow the Chinese telecom executive to return to China illustrate how badly the Canadian government has bungled this file, says B.C. criminal lawyer Gary Botting.

“Her arrest two years ago at the request of the Americans was a huge diplomatic gaffe that continues to hurt Canadians financially,” says Botting, principal of Gary N.A. Botting, Barrister. “It has had very serious ramifications, as anyone in the pork or canola industry can tell you, and those involved with any import/export business or tourism.”

Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, was arrested by Canadian authorities on a stopover at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. It claims she lied to Hong Kong bank executives in 2013 about Huawei’s ownership of an Iranian subsidiary that attempted to sell computer equipment, a violation of U.S. economic sanctions.

Since then, she has been under house arrest at a B.C. mansion, as protracted hearings continue about whether she should be sent to the United States to face charges.

‘Not a legal issue at all’

While the government has been under pressure to intervene in the case, Botting tells LegalMattersCanada.ca that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has claimed it is a matter for the courts to decide and that he doesn’t want to interfere with the rule of law.

“Hogwash. He must know this is not a legal issue at all,” he says. “Section 23(3) of the Extradition Act clearly gives the minister of justice the power to intervene in any extradition hearing when national interests are at stake. If Jody Wilson-Raybould had done that back in December 2018, or if David Lametti had acted when he took over as justice minister two months later, Canada could have avoided a whole lot of trouble.”

According to news reports, a potential deal between China and the United States would allow Meng to return to China in exchange for “admitting some wrongdoing” as CFI of Huawei according to the Wall Street Journal and CBC. “So far she has steadfastly maintained her innocence,” Botting added.

If such an agreement is reached that will be an about-face for the Chinese firm, according to a Globe & Mail story. It states that a year ago company founder Ren Zhengfei – Meng’s father – said such a deal was not possible, since his daughter had “committed no crime.”

Canada should have known better

“Canadian officials should have known that arresting a key executive of one of the largest corporations in the world would bring severe consequences,” says Botting, who has worked on hundreds of high-profile extradition cases.

“It is comparable to us arresting the daughter of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos or Microsoft’s Bill Gates – or Ivanka Trump – at the behest of China,” he adds.

If China and the United States agree on a deal to send Meng home, Botting says he expects Canada will release her.

If such an arrangement is not made, he says there are other options.

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“The easiest one is for prosecutors in New York to withdraw the warrant for her arrest, which can be done with a simple stroke of the pen,” Botting says.

Another option is for Lametti to evoke the power given to him under section 23(3) of the Extradition Act and release Meng from custody, an action he says 100 former diplomats have urged the minister to do.

“Letting her go has always been the only sensible way to deal with this matter, though that would mean the federal government would have to eat some humble pie and admit they made a mistake,” Botting says. “On this issue, Trudeau is acting more like Donald Trump than we can possibly imagine, even as our relationship with China spirals downhill.”

Needless economic damage

If Meng had not been arrested on Canadian soil on behalf of the United States, he says our country would have stronger trade deals with China, the world’s second-largest economy.

“We could have been profiting from American arbitrary tariff gaffes. But that has not happened, as our government will not admit they made a mistake,” Botting says. “It’s hubris, in its classical form.”

He adds that the fate of the two Canadians being held in Chinese jails on charges of spying is also tied to the release of Meng, pointing out some similarities in their cases.

“We have not seen any evidence from the Chinese to support the arrest of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, nor have seen any real evidence in Madam Meng’s extradition hearings,” Botting says.

If China and the United States fail to reach a deal on Meng, he says Canada’s best option will be to release her.

“The cabinet has to make responsible choices, which goes far beyond one individual being extradited to the States over an alleged corporate crime,” Botting says.

“If this wasn’t a political issue at the beginning, it certainly is now, and it becomes more of a political issue the longer Trudeau and Lametti keep her under house arrest,” he adds.