Lametti says politics a factor in Huawei case
New justice minister is in the hotseat as government’s top lawyer
OTTAWA— Justice Minister David Lametti says foreign affairs will be a factor if and when it comes time for him to make what he acknowledges is a political decision whether to extradite Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to the United States over China’s furious objections.
Lametti, named three weeks ago to take over the justice file after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled Jody WilsonRaybould off to veterans’ affairs for unspecified reasons, now finds himself on the hotseat in both the Meng Wanzhou affair and the SNC-Lavalin prosecution, among other unfinished legislative business.
On Thursday, in his first sitdown interview, Lametti admitted he had no idea why Tru- deau picked him to be WilsonRaybould’s successor, and tried to draw a distinction between his job as the government’s top lawyer and being a cabinet member, Quebec minister and MP, on all those files.
Lametti said he will often prioritize his role as attorney general or chief legal advisor to the government and its departments. But he said as a cabinet member he has a political role to play in helping to create and direct policy.
But, he said, he will not personally make a looming decision about whether his department will put the U.S. extradition case against a Huawei executive before a Canadian judge because it would politicize the legal process, which should run its course.
Lametti acknowledged that the welfare of three Canadians facing “arbitrary” justice in China may depend on whether Meng is extradited to the U.S. to face fraud charges connected to alleged violations of sanctions against Iran.
But he insisted the plight of the Canadians and Meng’s extradition are “two separate matters” and he will only weigh in at the end when it requires a political decision that takes account of foreign affairs.
He said Canada has, “as a matter of a political decision, created what I think is an excellent process, which is to say a section in the government will treat this (Meng) case neutrally as it runs through the courts, and the minister of justice will not have any say in the matter.
“Nor will any other political actor, and that is what we have done,” he added. “It is only, if and when there is a committal order to extradite by a judge that the minister of justice will enter into the proceeding and make what is, then, a decision based on all the evidence, but recognizing that, at this point, foreign affairs is a political matter, and … make a decision.”
Extradition law and jurisprudence explicitly state that a minister may take into account political factors such as good international relations or international legal cooperation frameworks. A minister may also refuse to extradite if he or she believes the prosecution is politicized, or being used to try someone for a political crime, such as treason or espionage.
Amid a firestorm of criticism from Beijing, Trudeau’s government has tried to avoid discussing what political factors may come into play in the case. Trudeau fired John McCallum as Chinese ambassador for his public speculations about the case.
Sitting in a sparsely furnished ministerial office he hasn’t yet moved into, Lametti acknowledged that, “sadly,” there are two Canadians detained in China. He was referring to Beijing’s arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest. He said their detentions are believed to be “politically oriented in nature.”
He also mentioned a third case, that of Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian convicted of drug trafficking, and said “we feel that a sentence has been arbitrarily jacked up to a death penalty.” None of it changes his approach, he said.
“If we link the two, then we’re falling victim to the very same kinds of processes that we’re criticizing in other countries.”
The international assistance group in the Canadian justice department will assess the U.S. case against Meng and decide, by the end of the month, whether to issue what’s called an “authority to proceed.”