Opinion | The outrageous, unlawful and unethical arrest and extradition against Meng Wanzhou

By Alan Leung, Blogger specialized in current affairs

Huawei's Chief Financial Officer and daughter of the company's founder, Meng Wanzhou, continues to be confined under semi-house arrest while subjected to round-the-clock electronic surveillance in Vancouver, two years after her controversial arrest under a US extradition warrant for alleged fraud allegations while transferring planes en route to Mexico from Hong Kong at the city's airport. Meng has since been fighting against her extradition to the US, a long and grueling process which allows for multiple appeals and can take many years to resolve.

Nonetheless, as Meng's extradition hearing proceeds, the case is not only becoming a massive political joke but is causing lasting and irreversible damages to Canada's claims to the "Rule of Law'' and the reputation of Canadian law enforcement agencies. Evidence is beginning to prove that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) goaded Meng into the Canadian immigration area from the airport transit area, which is technically not inside Canada, after communication with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and underwent some contentious examination.

During which Meng was interrogated for three hours, had her luggages searched and electronic devices seized together with their passwords, while RCMP officers waited in secret. The interrogation included questions involving her business dealings with Iran connected to the fraud allegations which shouldn't have been within the scope of CBSA questioning. All this occurred before Meng was even informed that she was under arrest and given the opportunity to seek legal counsel, which directly violated Section 10 of the Charter requiring Meng to be immediately informed of her charges upon arrest and violated the term of her extradition warrant which specifically stipulated that she was to be arrested immediately.

Meng's electronic devices and passwords were then subsequently given to the RCMP allegedly by mistake. Whether it was truly a mistake or not, it's still a breach of Canada's privacy law which strictly prohibited electronic devices passcodes obtained during examination to be shared with a third party including other law enforcement agencies. To make matters worse when officers and agents involved in the arrest were questioned about these events in court, their answers were either I don't recall, have no writing records or it was a mistake, whereas one officer even breached an explicit judge's instructions to not discuss her testimony with anyone, as she approached a government lawyer who is not part of the case with questions about her testimony.

It has become extremely hard for Canada's courts to continue being biased under the international spotlight without facing backlash and it's even harder to push the extradition forward as the case has already begun to collapse in front of our eyes as we speak under the weight of overwhelming evidence of violations by officers and agents against charter, acts and warrant terms, together with their constant contradictory statements in court. As it slowly becomes clear that Meng is likely to win against her extradition, the US Department of Justice is now making a big fanfare claiming Meng is negotiating with them in an attempt to goad Meng into a deal that would allow her to return to China immediately if she confessed to some crimes under a deferred prosecution agreement.

Deferred prosecution agreement is a favored US practice to exchange a confession for an immediate release to be used as propaganda and political firepower when they don't have enough evidence to build a case. Therefore, when the Americans put this option on the table, it proves they also believe their chance of winning the extradition is diminishing and trying a last-ditch attempt to gain something. Thus, the deferred prosecution agreement is a complete joke and Meng should never agree to it. Accepting the deal will not only destroy Huawei's reputation and incur the wrath of 1.4 billion people but directly give the US their much wanted evidence to boost their evidenceless propaganda against Huawei and China, which has always been the American true purpose and much more important than sending Meng to jail.

Finally, Heather Holmes, associate chief justice of British Columbia's Supreme Court and the preceding judge might be determined to proceed with the extradition as she still hasn't thrown the case into the trash bin after all the goof-ups, volitions, mistaken claims and contradictory statements. However, Holmes will be forced to release Meng in the end under the overwhelming evidence and international spotlight. Therefore, it's crucial that Meng stay strong and fight her outrageously, unlawful and unethical arrest and extradition till the end, while preventing the Americans from taking advantage of a shitty situation they made. She is not alone as she carries the honour of the nation and there are 1.4 billion people standing behind her.

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