Trudeau takes rare swipe at China

• China does not appear to understand that Canada’s judiciary is independent, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday, taking a rare public swipe at Beijing at a time when bilateral ties are poor.

Trudeau also accused China of the “arbitrary” arrest of two Canadians in “retaliation” over Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, who was arrested by Vancouver police in December 2018 and is fighting extradition to the United States on fraud charges.

“Canada has an independent judicial system that functions without interference or override by politicians,” Trudeau told a daily briefing.

“China doesn’t work quite the same way and (doesn’t) seem to understand that we do have an independent judiciary from political intervention.”

Shortly after Meng’s arrest, Chinese authorities detained Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

“We will continue to follow and uphold the independence of our judicial system while we advocate for the release of the two Michaels who have been arbitrarily detained by China in retaliation for a judicial system that is independent in the way it functions,” he said.

Trudeau said last month that China had suspended consular visits to the two men, citing the coronavirus outbreak.

“The fact that China is still linking an independent judicial system in the case of Meng Wanzhou with the arbitrary detention of two Canadians is saddening but that’s a challenge we’ve been working with for many months,” he said on Thursday.

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa was not immediately available for comment.

Canada and China are both “furious” over the case of Meng but there are signs the two sides can hold constructive talks, the Canadian ambassador to Beijing said in February.

The B.C. Supreme Court will release its decision on Meng next week.

The court says Justice Heather Holmes will release on Wednesday her ruling on the issue of so-called double criminality.

The legal arguments on double criminality centre on whether what Meng is accused of in the United States would be a crime in Canada.

The decision could lead to her release or it could start a new round of legal arguments, including whether her arrest was unlawful.

The United States has charged her with fraud over allegations she violated American sanctions against Iran, which she and the Chinese telecommunications giant have denied.

Her lawyers have argued the court should dismiss the case because Canada has rejected similar sanctions, while the Crown has said the judge’s role is to determine if there’s evidence of fraud.

Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Trudeau Liberals for a “policy of appeasement” to the Chinese regime. He said the Liberals initially did little to back Taiwan’s fight to be included in key pandemic meetings of the World Health Organization and only stepped up after loud calls by the Conservatives.

“We have been raising the alarm about this government’s failure to stand up for Canada, its policy of appeasement to the regime and the PRC (People’s Republic of China), and it’s only now after they see some polling data that they’ve started to change their message on that,” said Scheer.

Scheer said China is exerting undue influence on the WHO, as he lamented the decision not to include Taiwan at the World Health Assembly this week.

“I think it’s a shame. I believe that Taiwan being excluded from organizations like the WHO does not help anybody,” he said.

“China’s foreign policy should not have so much influence on other organizations that the people of Taiwan are excluded from the participation.”

The Trudeau government has made clear that it supports Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO even though it is navigating its own political crisis with China. But that support has other implications because of the ongoing imprisonment of Kovrig and Spavor.