Apparently Jean Chretien thinks it might be time for Canada to cry 'uncle.'
Jean Chrétien is floating the idea of having Canada’s Justice Minister exercise his legal authority to stop the U.S. extradition of senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou as the means to normalize diplomatic relations with China, sources say.
The former Liberal prime minister, who last week offered to serve as Canada’s special envoy to China to help free two jailed Canadians, has discussed the idea of cancelling the extradition process with business executives, according to sources with knowledge of the conversations.
...Sources say Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Goldenberg have pointed out in discussions that the law states the Justice Minister can end an extradition process. The Extradition Act says the minister “may at any time withdraw the authority to proceed” with an extradition request and “and if the minister does so, the court shall discharge and set aside any order made respecting their judicial interim release or detention.”
...Mr. Chrétien has said privately that the United States played a trick on Canada by forcing Ottawa to arrest Ms. Meng, and called the extradition request an unacceptable move by the United States at the expense of Canada and its farmers and pork producers. He has also privately said he doesn’t think Canada should pay the price for the Meng arrest.
Prof. Jiang, an expert on China who discussed with Mr. Goldenberg his proposal to have the Justice Minister end the Meng extradition, said Chinese authorities have carefully read the extradition law and know it is possible.Trump has already openly mused that he might use Ms. Meng as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from Beijing in Washington's trade war. So much for the legitimacy of America's extradition request.
That this information even surfaces through anonymous sources seems to suggest Chretien might be less of an ally to Justin Trudeau than some imagined. That, in turn, might partly explain why a former Chertien aide has emerged as such a relentless critic of the current prime minister.
Was Canada manipulated by Trump, forced in effect to arrest Meng by a disingenuous extradition demand? Were we tricked? That does seem possible.
Absolutely we were tricked; at least Trudeau and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Freeland, were. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that Meng Wanzhou is an hot potato and should have been dropped as quickly and quietly as possible.
ReplyDeleteWhere are CSIS and CSEC on this? Do they do anything useful? Trudeau should have known there was a coming problem before there was an official US extradition request. At the very least, someone should have warned Meng to grab the first plane back to China. They could have delivered her to the Chinese Embassy. It is through sheer incompetence that Canada is holding her.
Canada could have offered the US a polite, "oops!" Instead we have a mess.
If nothing else, Chretien could read the political winds. A pure technocrat who was best used as a second-in-command. His legacy, such as it is is NAFTA, the arts, and the Shawnigan Handshake. Also, keeping Canada mostly away from American exceptionalism.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, Canada probably was used in this case. Probably best for Canada to intervene. It's an "out" for Trudeau if he's brave enough to take it.
Talking about subverting the Rule of Law and our agreements with the US with "business" executives huh. What could be wrong with that ? The business "leaders" basically tell our elected officials what to do anyway why not make it official. At least then we can dispense with the illusion of democracy most Canadians have now. I can't wait to see what my Corporate Overlords have in store for me !!! Quick death or work camps ..... come on quick death !!!
ReplyDeleteTrump's political motives will come up at the extradition next year. Don't expect the judge to be amused and don't expect an extradition order.
ReplyDeleteAbout time they got someone to replace McCallum as "good cop". Chretien is the progressive/liberal/left version of the aw shucks I broke the rules again stuff we see from Trump and Ford. He's infuriating the China dictatorship by pointing out they are correct the government can override the justice system. But it also illustrates that this power is not routinely used as it is in China dictatorship. They are upset that we won't do it for them. We just aren't that into them. Unaccustomed to being disobeyed, they throw tantrums and Chretien teases them by suggesting we could just let her go.
ReplyDeleteWe should treat it the same as SNL Lavalin. The US can offer a DPA to Huawei, after the crooked employees (Meng) are fired and possibly jailed.
1) I miss Jean.
ReplyDelete2) tRump is an unprecedented threat to Canada and his nation has proven incapable of restraining him. Pissing him off could be catastrophic.
3) The "law" that Meng has "broken" involves the illegal sanctions that tRump imposed on Iran. For tRump to is a two-for - crush a very successful Chinese Apple competitor in the marketplace and cripple Iran.
4) Either CSIS or its political masters failed us big time by not quietly avoiding this.
5) Best scenario: stretch this thing out and hope to hell the Dems don't run Biden next year.
Actually the law broken was for the sanctions in place before the agreement with Iran. Trump is backing out of that agreement but Huawei was selling equipment to Iran under the earlier UN sanctions .
ReplyDeleteProbably a deal will happen and US will drop extradition in exchange for something thta would be what a DPA would do
@ Anon 8:12 OK, thanks
ReplyDeletefor the correction on which vintage of the ridiculous sanction laws are being selectively employed and acknowledge the slightly increased size of the legal fig leaf.
Of course, any chance to screw Iran and continue global control via the US dollar and its banking institutions will be enthusiastically embraced by the entire US political class (not just tRump).
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The real Huahwi problem?
(aside from the criminally-poorly-phonetically rendered spelling of the English name) ;-)
"Crown lawyers describe Huawei as the world's largest telecommunications company. The firm employs 180,000 people in more than 170 countries and regions worldwide, including more than 700 people in Canada."
This was for sure an entrapment by US.
ReplyDeleteIt remains to be seen if Trump was actually in charge of it, or it was done by officials trying to throw the monkey wrench into his policies
9:15 Corect spelling. I'd like to add Whan szzzz hou. Anyong
ReplyDelete