Meng extradition process could drag on for years, experts warn

OTTAWA — Canada’s cumbersome extradition system means Chinese business executive Meng Wanzhou could wait years before her case is resolved, even if she will inevitably be committed to stand trial in the United States, legal experts say.

Robert Currie, a professor of international law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, pointed to the case of Ottawa professor Hassan Diab as an illustration of the flaws with Canada’s Extradition Act.

Diab was extradited to France on charges he bombed a Paris synagogue in 1980, even though the Ottawa judge presiding over the case acknowledged the evidence was too weak to have led to a conviction in Canada.

Diab’s case took six years to wind its way through Canadian courts before he was sent to France. Last January, after Diab spent years in a French jail, the French dropped all the charges against him for lack of evidence. He returned to Canada vowing to reform Canada’s extradition law.

There’s no reason to believe Meng’s case will unfold any quicker, Canadian officials said this week, saying the case could take years.

When all is said and done, it’s all but inevitable that Meng will be extradited to the U.S. because the Canadian system is so steeply tilted against the accused person, said Currie.

“The accused is not meaningfully able to challenge the requesting state’s evidence,” said Currie. “Diab’s case really highlights that.”

Diab’s lawyer Donald Bayne said the extradition law essentially gives judges no discretion.

“It’s a terrible and defective system … [the judge is] a rubber stamp,” Bayne said. “And now we’re going to be the victims of our own defective system.”

The federal government has repeatedly said Meng will be dealt with fairly and transparently by an independent judiciary, but U.S. President Donald Trump undermined those assertions when he mused Tuesday about interfering in Meng’s case if it would help him forge a trade deal with China.

On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Meng’s lawyers could use Trump’s comment to help fight her extradition.