The rule of law is about more than just what the law allows
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou leaves B.C. Supreme Court for a lunch break during the first day of her extradition hearing in Vancouver, on Jan. 20, 2020.At the heart of last week’s “Letter to the Prime Minister” from 19 eminent Canadians is an alluring proposition: that we can secure the freedom of the two Canadians held hostage by the government of China at no cost beyond the release of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive wanted by the United States on charges of bank fraud.
The Minister of Justice has only to withdraw his “authority to proceed” against Ms. Meng, and everything else falls into place: her release, followed by the release of “the two Michaels,” businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig. But there the chain of consequences ends.No other Canadians are taken hostage in response, by China or anyone else, with no message having been sent about the usefulness of this tactic in dealings with Canada. The U.S.
To be sure, the 19 luminaries allow, “it does not sit well with anyone to yield to bullying or blackmail.” But this appears to be little more than an offence against good taste. Indeed, far from worrying that yielding to China’s demands in response to such “repugnant” tactics might encourage China to make more such demands backed by the same tactics, the 19 fret that, in fact, failing to give China what it wants would invite it to “escalate” by “detaining more than two Canadians.
These are serious people – former party leaders, diplomats, civil servants and the like. But these are not serious arguments. And of all the unserious suggestions in their letter, the silliest is the notion that the minister’s intervention on behalf of Ms. Meng would do no damage to the rule of law.
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