Meng should be locked up

Re China ties fate of detained Canadians to Meng case, June 25

It is very clear that the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, with all her resources, is a flight risk and yet languishes at home in an ankle bracelet.

On the other hand, we have two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, being held in China in solitary confinement on trumped up spying charges and are not flight risks.

Isn’t it about time we place Wanzhou in solitary to reduce her chance of becoming a flight risk?

She lives in the lap of luxury and (the) Canadians are suffering.

It’s time for China to release their hostages and realize they are not a bargaining chip when it comes to Canadian law and extradition treaties. Ted Lazich, Hamilton

Maybe Canada should respond to China with the same inhumane treatment as the Chinese government is giving the two imprisoned Canadians.

Using the Chinese system of injustice, Meng Wanzhou would be locked in a maximum detention prison and denied access to lawyers, consular services and medical treatment.

But Canada is not as inhumane as the authoritarian Chinese government, so we probably won’t copy their primitive system of tortured injustice.

Instead, Canada may try to exchange Meng Wanzhou for the two Canadians, like a hostage trade, for that is the more humane way to behave.

There’s plenty China’s repressive regime can learn about humanity from Canada.

And when this uncivilized mess is finally sorted out, Canada would be smart to ban all imports of Huawei technology. Max Moore, Toronto

Ever since we arrested Meng Wanzhou, the People’s Republic of China’s billionaire, the word arrest should be an oxymoron, since we have treated her like a celebrity while two Canadians arrested in reprisal languish in Chinese prison cells.

We complain that China does not understand that our justice system is independent of politics. But perhaps it is we who do not understand the Chinese system of justice, and should reply in kind: a prison cell for a prison cell.

We would be perfectly within the law if we locked her up until the extradition process is completed. Perhaps by being a little hard nosed, we might get more respect. Keith Parkinson, Cambridge, Ont.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s insinuation that to “trade” Meng Wanzhou for two Canadians held on charges in China is tantamount to declaring that Canada can be held “hostage” overlooks two things.

The first is that in the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations was created as an institutional means of preserving world peace and human rights in the face of the obvious failures of nation states acting alone in their interests to meet that task. In this new world, it was mandated that only the United Nations Security Council could levy sanctions.

The fact that the arrest of Meng Wanzhou is based on United States allegations that Meng’s actions violated its unilateral sanctions already has a spurious basis in international law.

This brings us to the second point. In arresting Meng at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump and the United States for an alleged violation of unilateral sanctions never authorized by the United Nations Security Council, Trudeau has already announced Canada is easy prey for hostage taking. Richard Westra, Maple