Ambassador McCallum wades into Meng case
CANADA’S TOP DIPLOMAT IN CHINA CRITICIZED FOR WADING INTO THE MENG CASE
Canada’s ambassador to China caused a furor Wednesday for speculating on how a Chinese executive detained in Canada could avoid extradition to the United States. John McCallum, a former immigration minister, opined in a meeting with Chinese-Canadian journalists on Tuesday in a Toronto suburb that Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou has a good defence.
His description of the “strong arguments” Meng’s lawyers could make represent a marked departure from the Canadian official position to allow the case to proceed without political interference and caused some to question whether he should remain as ambassador.
Canadian authorities detained Meng in Vancouver on Dec. 1 on behalf of the U.S., which accuses her of violating American sanctions on Iran by facilitating telecommunications business there. She was released on bail and remains under house arrest. The Americans have until Jan. 30 to file a request for extradition.
The arrest immediately provoked anger in China. Within weeks authorities there had detained two Canadian citizens and abruptly ordered the death penalty for a Canadian convicted of drug smuggling, actions widely deemed retaliatory.
For more than a year the world’s two largest economies have been locked in a trade war, maintaining reciprocal tariffs on billions of dollars worth of annual goods trade. And Huawei was already a sore point. The U.S. convinced other members of the Five Eyes alliance to join it in banning the company’s involvement in the development of 5G data networks. Canada has not done so.
I think she has some strong arguments that she can make before a judge … I think Ms. Meng has quite a STRONG CASE – Ambassador John McCallum on Tuesday, Jan. 22
Tensions between the U.S. and China were de-escalating the very same day that Canadians arrested Meng. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping had agreed to a ceasefire in the tariff war. After some raised concerns that a high-profile extradition could unravel those positive developments, Trump said that if it was good for trade he would “certainly intervene” in Meng’s case.
McCallum told the Chinese-language reporters that Trump’s “political involvement,” in what Canada was framing as a purely judicial decision, is the number one reason he thinks Meng’s lawyers have a good case.
“Two, there’s an extraterritorial aspect to her case. And three, there’s the issue of Iran sanctions, which are involved in her case, and Canada does not sign on to these Iran sanctions. So, I think she has some strong arguments that she can make before a judge,” he said, in remarks posted to YouTube.
McCallum tempered the comments with statements about the government’s “zero interference” policy and the rule of law, according to multiple reports from media outlets in attendance at the press conference in Markham, which has a large Chinese population.
He also stressed the close ties between China and Canada — at one point, on a personal note, saying all three of his sons had married Chinese women.
His comments garnered criticism when they came to broader attention on Wednesday, not least because mainstream outlets had not been invited to question him. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office would not go on the record to explain why.
The ambassador’s arguments have been raised before, but by private commentators. The closest a Canadian official has come to offering an opinion was Freeland quipping in December when asked about Trump: “our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process.”
She was at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday and not available to comment.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not directly address McCallum’s comments. “I think part of the strength of our justice system is people get to mount their own defence, and I know she (Meng) will do that,” he told reporters in Saskatchewan.
Meng’s lawyer, David Martin, declined to comment, and the U.S. Department of Justice, affected by a domestic government shutdown, did not respond.
The opposition was quick to raise questions of political interference. “Did Trudeau instruct the ambassador to make these statements? Did the Liberals exclude Canadian media from the press conference to limit scrutiny?” asked Erin O’Toole, the Conservative foreign affairs critic, in a series of Twitter posts.
David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, cautioned against reading a grand strategy into McCallum’s words. “I am amazed that people see in this a sophisticated effort at sending a message to China,” he said in an email. “The remarks confuse multiple audiences and undercut important messages about our commitment to the rule of law and judicial independence. I worry that it is another
I WORRY THAT IT IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE READY, FIRE, AIM APPROACH.
example of the ready, fire, aim approach to foreign policy that this government can’t seem to shake.”
As an ambassador, McCallum “cannot express any personal opinion in a public forum that is not assumed to be the official position of the government of Canada,” said Charles Burton, a China expert at Brock University. “It’s highly inappropriate, and I question whether Mr. McCallum should continue in this role at a very sensitive time in Canada-China relations, if he’s going to make such a great error in judgment in saying what he said.”
Burton suggested Meng’s lawyer could use the comments to argue Canada has a political opinion, making the case for extradition weaker. If the court approves extradition, a final decision rests with the justice minister.