Officials met prior to Meng’s arrest

INFO SHARING

• A border officer who assisted in the examination of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver’s airport before her arrest two years ago says information sharing was discussed with the RCMP before she landed.

Scott Kirkland told the B. C. Supreme Cour t on Thursday that someone raised the question of how information collected by border officials could be legally obtained by police during a meeting between Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP officers before Meng’s plane arrived.

Under cross- examination by defence lawyer Mona Duckett, Kirkland agreed that Section 107 of the Customs Act was brought up in the meeting in the context of how the RCMP could legally obtain information from a customs and immigration exam.

He agreed that it was raised in anticipation that border officials could discover information worth sharing.

Kirkland testified that he couldn’t recall whether it was an RCMP or border officer who raised the Customs Act on the issue of information sharing.

“It was brought up in the context of how the RCMP could legally obtain information from your examination?” Duckett asked.

“Yes,” Kirkland said.

“So, in advance of the examination, there was a discussion of the sharing of information obtained, right?” “Yes,” he said.

“In anticipation of getting information worth sharing?” Duckett asked.

“If that arose, yes.” Kirkland was called to testify at the request of Meng’s defence team, which is gathering evidence for arguments it will make next year that she was subjected to an abuse of process.

The defence has alleged there was a “co- ordinated strategy” to have the RCMP delay her arrest so border officials could question Meng under the pretence of a routine immigration exam.

Also on Thursday, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes released a decision allowing the defence to pursue an argument as part of its abuse of process allegations.

The defence has sought to argue that the United States misled Canadian officials in its summary of the case against her.

“I have concluded that there is an air of reality to Ms. Meng’s allegations of abuse of process in relation to the requesting state’s conduct in certifying the (record of case),” the decision says.

Meng is wanted in the United States on fraud charges over allegations she lied to HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with a company doing business in Iran, putting the bank at risk of violating American sanctions against that countr y. Meng and Huawei deny the allegations.

Wednesday Kirkland testified border officers made “abundantly clear” to the RCMP the Mounties could not interfere in their examination process.