Canadian police officer denies trying to keep arrest warrant secret from Meng Wanzhou
- The Huawei executive’s lawyer said Meng’s rights were violated when border officers conducted an examination without telling her she was about to be arrested
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Gurvinder Dhaliwal agreed Meng could have been arrested as soon as she stepped off her flight from Hong Kong
A Canadian police officer involved in the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has denied telling border officers to keep the warrant secret from her, to prevent Meng from obtaining legal advice until after an immigration examination and the seizure of her electronic devices.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Gurvinder Dhaliwal was in charge of evidence seized by the border officers from Meng – including her two phones, iPad, Apple laptop and a memory stick – before she was arrested on a US warrant at Vancouver’s airport on December 1, 2018.
Meng’s lawyer Scott Fenton contended in a hearing at the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Tuesday that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was told by the RCMP not to tell Meng she was going to be arrested “because that could have triggered an interest by Ms Meng in speaking to counsel”.
Instead she was only told after the CBSA examination, which lasted almost three hours, during which border officers asked her about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran, seized her devices and obtained the passwords to them.
“My proposition is that’s because the RCMP asked the CBSA … to keep it discreet, to keep it secret,” Fenton said.
“I did not do anything of that sort,” Dhaliwal responded.