China's ambassador to Canada says Canada acted as a "disgraceful" accomplice to the United States in arresting Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou on an American extradition warrant.
Ambassador Cong Peiwu tells The Canadian Press that Canada must release Meng, who he says is being arbitrarily and unjustly detained by Canada, or Canada-China relations won't be able to return to normal.
Cong also suggests that even if Meng is released, there are no guarantees that Michael Korvig or Michael Spavor, the two Canadian men who began their third year in Chinese prisons today, would be released in kind.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shot back at China today, once again calling on the People’s Republic to release the two, saying they are being arbitrarily detained in an act of "hostage diplomacy."
Trudeau says Canada arrested Meng as part of its lawful compliance with an extradition treaty with its closest ally, the U.S.
China confirmed Thursday that Kovrig and Spavor would face a national security trial, but Cong could provide no further details on when or how that legal proceeding would unfold.
Moreover, A former executive with the Canada Border Services Agency says she never had concerns about the motivations or conduct of border officers involved in the examination of Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested at the Vancouver airport on behalf of the United States.
Roslyn MacVicar served as the director general for the border agency in the Pacific region at the time of Meng's arrest on Dec. 1, 2018, though she told B.C. Supreme Court on Friday she was out of town at the time.
MacVicar, now retired, testified she doesn't recall giving her staff specific direction about record keeping related to Meng's questioning at the airport, but upper management would have known that was expected.
"I would have (been) speaking to the issue of how important it was that we had a full record of what had occurred," she said.
"What I usually say with my senior managers is that, you know, we have an obligation to ensure that we have a record and they would have known that I expected that there be a record as it related to (Meng's) arrival."
Nicole Goodman, who oversaw passenger operations for the border agency, told the court this week that MacVicar advised her not to make additional records about the case in the weeks following Meng's arrest because the notes could be part of an access to information request.
MacVicar told court the only concern she had about record keeping in Meng's case would have related to questions about issues not directly connected to the border agency's process and role in what happened.
The Vancouver airport is a high-profile port of entry and there was increasing media coverage in the days after Meng's arrest, she said.
Over time, coverage "started morphing into different areas, all of which had nothing to do with what was necessarily the CBSA process," she testified.
"I would have been cautioning my senior managers about, you know, trying to stick to ... what was the CBSA process, what was the role there."
MacVicar is testifying as part of an evidence-gathering hearing in which Meng's lawyers are honing in on the circumstances of their client's arrest to support an abuse of process argument they're set to make next year.
The Huawei CFO is wanted on fraud and conspiracy charges over allegations that she and Huawei put a bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions in Iran, allegations both Meng and the company deny.
The court heard Thursday that Meng's lawyers are planning to introduce a new legal argument alleging she was subjected to an abuse of process and she should be freed, in addition to three ongoing branches of arguments.
Her legal team has so far alleged their client was used as a bargaining chip for political purposes by U.S. President Donald Trump, that U.S. officials misled their Canadian counterparts by leaving key information out of their record of the case, and that Meng's detention and arrest were unlawful.
The court heard her lawyers plan to file the fourth branch of argument on Monday, but further details of the argument weren't shared.
The extradition case is ongoing amid media reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is discussing a deal that would see Meng admit to some wrongdoing and in exchange be allowed to leave Canada.
