Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou will this week appear in court where judges in two separate courtrooms will hear arguments that are part of her legal team’s two-pronged approach to have her extradition case thrown out.
At a preliminary disclosure hearing beginning Monday, Ms. Meng’s lawyers are set to seek details from prosecutors about her arrest at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, on a U.S. extradition request. New information would be expected to be used to argue a violation of process.
Similarly, in civil proceedings, Ms. Meng’s lawyers are expected to argue that members of the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP breached her constitutional rights during the arrest.
Both matters are essentially document-production applications, with more information being requested. A key difference between the two is the power of disclosure, said Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who has followed the case closely.
“You can get a lot of stuff out of a civil case that you could not get out of a criminal or extradition case,” he said. “That allows you to pull down the ammunition you need from the civil-case process and insert it into the extradition-case process.”
A civil claim filed in March alleges Ms. Meng was held and questioned for three hours at Vancouver’s airport without being advised of her rights, and that CBSA officers unlawfully searched her electronic devices.
Ms. Meng’s arrest has created a rift between Canada and China. Beijing arrested two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on espionage charges, and halted imports of Canadian agricultural products, including canola and pork.
Mr. Kurland said the disclosure of new information and documents – such as video of the CBSA interview – could open the door to a fresh consideration of the entire case.
“In immigration, it’s commonplace when there’s new information and documents to reconsider a prior decision, like a refusal, or putting someone into a deportation process,” he said.
If presented with new and significant evidence that Ms. Meng’s Charter rights were breached, the possibility arises that the minister of justice and attorney-general could reconsider the decision to proceed with the extradition, Mr. Kurland said.
