It sure smells like a hostage-taking. 1) a Canadian, 2) in China, 3) Huawei CFO in custody in Vancouver facing extradition to the United States for allegedly violating US sanctions against Iran.
The hostage is Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat now with the International Crisis Group.
“International Crisis Group is aware of reports that its north-east Asia senior adviser, Michael Kovrig, has been detained in China,” the thinktank said in a statement.
“We are doing everything possible to secure additional information on Michael’s whereabouts as well as his prompt and safe release,” it added.
China’s foreign ministry and ministry of public security did not respond immediately to questions faxed earlier about Kovrig’s detention.
The exact reason for the detention was not immediately clear.China has been demanding Canada release Huawei's Meng Wanzhou or face reprisals. This sure sounds like reprisal.
I guess I just don't understand but even if what is claimed about dealings with Iran are true, what difference does that make?
ReplyDeleteIf a Chinese company wants to deal with Iran even though the US doesn't want people to, what right does that give the US - and Canada - to hold someone for prosecution for doing so?
UU
I agree 100%,I don't like Trudeau acting like Trump's Lackey.
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ReplyDeleteAmerica always has had "extra-territorial" instincts but now it believes that its laws are global and to be obeyed by all. There is a solid argument that, had these sanctions been imposed by a valid authority, i.e. the Security Council, then Huawei would have been bound by them. Whether that argument would be upheld at her extradition hearing remains to be seen.
The more Washington abuses its authority, the more we need the world community to tell the US to sit down and STFU.
There's an article by Christopher Black, who is listed as " an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases and recently published his novel “Beneath the Clouds".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50722.htm
He asks the question I have been asking myself these past few days, to whit: How can Canada detain a foreign national for breaking illegal, non UN-approved, unilateral US sanctions on Iran? It's none of our business to back up illegality.
Well, it turns out, in a world the right way up, we couldn't do that if we followed the letter of the extradition treaty we have with the US. Apparently our BC Supreme Court judge either doesn't recognize this fact or is spending a lot of time trying to find a way to not set his own ass on fire.
We are a poodle for the US, a wimpish nonentity of a country that believes we are darn decent folk but always acts in the hegemonic US interest. Not that China is any shining light in the human rights field, and apparently thinks Trudeau can gerrymander our court system as easily the "social credit" citizen-spying totalitarian autocrats running China can do.
A pox on both the US and China. Bugger off and leave us alone to be hypocritical within our own borders.
BM
ReplyDeleteI expect we'll hear these very points argued on the extradition treaty. It's easy to see unexpected side affects, impacts, that can arise out of this ruling including, perhaps, a new take on our requirement to apprehend notables for war crimes, the type of powerful person we too often simply avoid often because they're American.
Haven't Canadian courts already chastened Canada's extradition process? It's a system prone to abuse by countries with flawed judicial processes such as France and the United States.
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