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Canada provides itself wiggle room for Huawei case
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By Jim Miles | Axis of Logic
Axis of Logic
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2019
Huawei
executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested at Vancouver International airport
in December by Canadian authorities at the request of the U.S.
government. Canada at first maintained a position of not wanting to
make the case “political” and to continue with the extradition process
as Canada works with the “rule of law.”
Unfortunately for Canada it is
an obvious political move on the part of the U.S.; and anytime a
western government uses the “rule of law” phrase, I have learned it
means something shady is going on, but it does fit within the technical
definition of rule of law.
But as indicated by Canada’s
ambassador to China as reported on CBC this morning (Wednesday, January
23, 2019) the political aspect is fully fledged and the “rule of law”
may not be all that it seems to be. From another aspect, it could be
argued that McCallum’s presentations is giving Canada some room to avoid
a worst case scenario, being an actual extradition to the U.S.
Canada's
ambassador to China, John McCallum actually gave a well reasoned
response to Canada's potential actions. That could defeat the
extradition request by the U.S. First off he noted interference from
the White House (aka Trump). He then noted that U.S. laws were being
applied extraterritorially, in other words out of their jurisdiction. Finally he noted that the supposed criminal action occurred because
Huawei executive Meng had dealt with a country under U.S. sanctions -
sanctions not supported by Canada as they result from the U.S.
abrogation of the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action, signed along with Russia, France, Germany, China, and the U.K.
I
have read the JCPA and it is truly comprehensive; and with China as a
signatory, the combination of the arrest and the abrogation of the
treaty gives the Chinese very understandable reasons to be fully pissed
off at the U.S.
John McCallum was sort of called out by Canada
PM Trudeau who rebutted the comments once again relying on the tried
(and tired) and true neoliberal platitude about the “rule of law.” But
one has to wonder if McCallum acted on his own integrity and volition,
if he vetted his statements through the government, or if the government
provided the impetus for his statements. Regardless, the reasoning
seems sound as his comments are on the mark - true, not fake news.
Watch and see if McCallum remains as ambassador to China….
When
the U.S. places a formal request for extradition the news location moves
into the Canadian court system. It could be a long haul as at the
extreme the case could be argued all the way to Canada’s supreme court, a
process that could take years. In the meantime it is reported that
Meng Wanzhou has applied at the University of British Columbia to take
an academic program - a good use of her house arrest time. In the best
case scenario, the courts will accept the three arguments presented by
John McCallum and release her from detention.
I am no lawyer, but
presumably that might mean an appeal by the U.S. government, but if
Canada is intelligent at that point in time it can then invoke its
precious “rule of law” and stand back from preventing Meng from flying
home.
But that is all speculation, nothing I have ever held to
be terribly worthwhile. Overall it appears on the surface that Canada
has perhaps found a way out from between a rock and a hard place, saving
face but not winning any bonus points with anyone. So, thank you, Mr.
McCallum for putting a touch of sanity into the current situation, may
your career prosper.
* * * *
... and just
coming in as I type, Maduro has broken off relationships with the U.S.
and Trump’s team has responded with an “all options on the table,”
perspective. For Trudeau, who has supported the U.S. attitude on
Venezuela by giving validation to the opposition leader as being the
actual president, it will be interesting to see how far he goes in
supporting any and all U.S. overt or covert schemes to dislodge another
government.
Canada and its political leaders of all stripes are
fully complicit, full vassals of the U.S. empire. As much as they try
to deny this it is obvious from what they do rather than what they say
that Canada is truly a pawn for the empire. There will probably be no
surprises as once again they trumpet (sure, pun intended) their rule of
law mantra as the U.S. in its quest for global military domination (for
the corporations of course) overthrows another government that defies
hegemony.
© Copyright 2019 by AxisofLogic.com
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