On March 1, and continuing through May, Meng Wanzhou will return to the British Columbia Supreme Court. During this next phase of extradition proceedings, the court will hear arguments related to the four branches of abuse of process raised by Ms. Meng’s counsel — including political motivation, unlawful detention, material omissions and misstatements, and violations of customary international law. The court will be seized with whether these constitute an abuse of the Canadian judicial process sufficient to order a stay of the extradition proceedings.
The four branches of abuse of process are as follows:
1. Under former President Donald Trump, the United States sought to use the extradition proceedings against Ms. Meng for political and economic gain.
Specifically, the former U.S. President publicly stated his willingness to use Ms. Meng’s freedom as leverage in an attempt to secure a trade deal with China. This misconduct shows that the United States used Ms. Meng as a “bargaining chip,” reducing her to an economic asset – a pawn – in a political-economic contest, and deprived Ms. Meng of her rights. This is deeply offensive to the rule of law and the integrity of the judicial system.
2. There were continuous and systematic violations of Ms. Meng’s Charter rights by different government agencies.
For the benefit of the FBI and other U.S. agencies, the CBSA, RCMP and the U.S. authorities planned and colluded in an illegal detention, search, and interrogation of Ms. Meng at Vancouver International Airport. This illegal evidence-gathering operation included the warrantless search and seizure of her electronic devices for criminal investigative purposes, followed by various cover-ups and misconduct, including the flight from Canada of a crucial RCMP witness and the destruction of his emails. These repeated and continuous violations of Ms. Meng’s Charter rights amount to an abuse of process and justify a stay of the extradition proceedings.
3. The Department of Justice under Donald Trump misled Canada by omitting crucial evidence from the summary of its case against Ms. Meng.
Specifically, the Department of Justice misrepresented the contents of a PowerPoint document that forms the foundation of U.S. accusations. Ms. Meng alleges that the United States deliberately withheld and misstated evidence in the Record of the Case, misleading the Canadian courts. In October, the BC Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Meng’s allegations that the United States misled Canada had “an air of reality.”
4. The case against Ms. Meng violates customary international law.
Customary international law, which is binding on all states, does not permit a state to assert criminal jurisdiction extraterritorially over conduct that has no substantial and genuine connection to that state. There is no connection between Ms. Meng’s alleged conduct and the United States. The United States’ charges against Ms. Meng, and its request for her extradition, are based on an unlawful exercise of jurisdiction – a further abuse of process.
In sum, the extradition proceedings against Ms. Meng constitute an abuse of the Canadian judicial process and the extradition should and must be stayed.
Please see the following statement from Huawei Canada:
“As the case enters its next phase, Huawei remains confident in Meng Wanzhou’s innocence. We will continue to support Ms. Meng’s pursuit of justice and freedom.”
SOURCE Huawei Canada