Canada lawyer rejects ‘narrative of abuse’ by Meng Wanzhou’s legal team, saying timing of arrest demanded ‘discretion’
- Judge says the bagging of Meng’s phones by border agents was ‘clearly associated’ with US request for arrest, as Canada lawyer claimed it was ‘incidental’
- The hearing has been adjourned until Thursday morning, when Meng’s lawyers will respond
A Canadian judge on Wednesday expressed scepticism over government lawyers’ resistance to Meng Wanzhou’s efforts to obtain more documents about her treatment in the hours before her arrest at the Vancouver airport on December 1.
Justice Heather Holmes said the crown lawyers’ reliance on an “absence of inferences” to push back against the Huawei executive’s claims that her rights had been abused were “unhelpful” when in some instances these absences “could be easily filled”.
Government lawyers denied that delaying the arrest was abusive, rejecting the claim by Meng’s lawyers that the three-hour time period, during which she was searched and questioned, defied a court order that she be arrested “immediately”.
John Gibb-Carsley, one of the Canadian crown lawyers representing the US in the hearing, said that exercising the police powers of arrest required “discretion” and judgment, as he criticised the “narrative of abuse” of Meng’s Canadian constitutional rights being made by her lawyers.
Meng’s treatment by Canadian border officers in the hours after she arrived from Hong Kong on December 1, but before she was arrested by police acting on a US warrant, has been the focus of an eight-day hearing in British Columbia’s Supreme Court, where her lawyers are seeking a court order that Canadian authorities hand over more documents about her handling.
The US wants Meng to face trial for allegedly defrauding HSBC by misleading the bank about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.