(Ottawa) President Joe Biden’s determination not to interfere in the administration of justice in the United States, unlike his predecessor, has hampered Ottawa’s efforts to have Washington negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with Meng Wanzhou, according to a new book.
The United States finally struck a deal with Huawei’s chief financial officer in September, which allowed Canada to drop M’s extradition proceedings.me Meng. This outcome promptly triggered the release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, held in China for nearly three years in what was widely seen as retaliation for Mr.me Meng at Vancouver Airport in December 2018.
A small part of the behind the scenes of this denouement is offered in the book The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War, co-authored by Mike Blanchfield, reporter for The Canadian Press in Ottawa, and Fen Hampson, professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Six months before the simultaneous release of Mme Meng and the “two Michael’s,” the authors write, Canada’s Ambassador to China Dominic Barton spent several weeks in Washington trying to persuade US Department of Justice prosecutors, Huawei lawyers and Mr.me Meng to reach an agreement. But according to the authors, those diplomatic efforts failed because President Biden made it clear that he did not want to interfere with the administration of justice as his predecessor, Donald Trump had done.
“Biden came to power determined to restore public confidence in American institutions, and he was desperate to break with Trump’s politicization of the Justice Department, which he tried to run as if it were a cabinet.” of private lawyers ”, we read in this new essay. The book quotes an anonymous Canadian source who had first-hand knowledge of the negotiations: “Things were made more difficult because Biden became more Catholic than the Pope about the Justice Department, trying to distinguish himself from meddling. of Trump in the administration of justice ”.
Holding the Olympics as white as snow
SCREENSHOT
The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War
Yet, according to a senior US government official, quoted by the authors, justice officials themselves wanted to “reexamine the merits” of the Meng case, which was based on an allegation that she violated US sanctions against it. ‘Iran. As they viewed Huawei’s conduct as illegal, “they were increasingly aware that other banks and institutions that had violated sanctions against Iran were not being treated the same,” it read. in the book.
At the same time, the authors write that China was also increasingly interested in a negotiated settlement, in part because Beijing wanted to get rid of this irritant before the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The turning point came last summer when the marathon extradition hearing of Mme Meng in the BC Supreme Court eventually ended and it had become “apparent that his chances of avoiding extradition were slim,” the authors write.
On September 24, Mme Meng accepted the claim, described in a US statement of facts, that she and other Huawei employees deceived global financial institutions about the company’s activities in Iran. She pleaded not guilty to all counts. In return, the United States deferred the charges against her and dropped their extradition request. A few hours later, Mme Meng was returning home to China and the “two Michael’s” were on a plane back to Canada.
Rock, Arbor and Mulroney
The book chronicles the various efforts made in Canada by Ottawa and those close to MM. Kovrig and Spavor to free the two Canadians, who also involved actors from several political parties, including Allan Rock, former Liberal minister and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Rock led a delegation of former diplomats, politicians and academics who met with Chinese officials in November 2019 to discuss China-Canada relations.
Mr. Rock, along with former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor, would later argue in a letter to the Canadian government that he should in fact invoke the provision of the Extradition Act that allows the Minister of Justice to put an end to extradition proceedings at all times. According to the authors of the book, M. Rock and Mme Arbor “got no response to their 2020 letter to the federal government, not even a polite acknowledgment.”
Former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney also intervened last July in a telephone conversation the book’s authors described as “direct and frank” with Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu.
Quoted by the authors, Mr. Mulroney is said to have told the ambassador: “We know very well that (the two Michael’s) were picked up from the sidewalks there to satisfy a political agenda in Beijing. You would do yourself a lot more good by freeing the Canadians. It would gain you a lot of support around the world ”.
Although Mr. Mulroney for a moment urged Ottawa to dispatch former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as special envoy to China to negotiate the release of Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor, he disagreed with Mr. Chrétien’s suggestion to do a prisoner swap.
According to the authors of the book, Mr. Mulroney supported the government’s position that Canada’s sacrosanct extradition treaty with the United States should not be changed to appease the Chinese, “painful as it may be. for both Michael ”.