Ex-legal officials: Ottawa has authority to free Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou

The Trudeau government has the legal authority to set Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou free immediately but is "wrongly claiming otherwise" after being embarrassed over revelations of political interference in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc last year, according to a former Canada Liberal justice minister and a former Supreme Court judge.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Tuesday, Allan Rock, who was justice minister and attorney general from 1993 to 1997, said Canada needs "a full debate based on a legitimate foundation of facts, rather than an incantation of rubrics, like 'rule of law' and the 'independence of the courts' and the 'sanctity of the judiciary'."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister David Lametti, however, say the court process must be allowed to unfold so as not to compromise the independence of the justice minister's ultimate decision on whether Meng, who was arrested on Dec 1, 2018, by Canadian police on an extradition request from the Trump administration, should be surrendered to the US for prosecution.

Rock, along with Louise Arbour, who is a former justice of Canada's Supreme Court and the wife of one of two Canadians who have been formally charged with spying by Chinese prosecutors, sought a legal opinion from Brian Greenspan, a Toronto lawyer with decades of experience in extradition cases, on Lametti's authority to withdraw the case.

Greenspan wrote his opinion to Lametti by saying that the Extradition Act has clearly defined since 1999 that the Canadian government can "legally intervene" and withdraw its support for Meng's extradition case "at any time", despite it having to keep a hands-off approach until Meng's extradition hearing has concluded.

"My concern is, once bitten, twice shy. In (the SNC-Lavalin case), they shouldn't have and they did. Here they can and they should, but they won't. Because they think they can't, and they're wrong," Rock said.

Arbour also told The Globe and Mail that she cannot understand the government's claim that Lametti lacks the authority to free Meng right now because the law is clear "on its face".

"The government is confused again, but the other way around, about the role of the minister of justice and the attorney general. The dominant role clearly is of the minister of justice, not the attorney general, who has a small, very visible, very public part to play — that's the tail that shouldn't be wagging the dog," she said.

Both Rock and Arbour "leave little doubt" where they stand in the debate they wish to kick-start over whether the justice minister should withdraw the extradition case, as Canada needs to "put its national interest first".

Trudeau said Monday that it was "clear" that China detained two Canadians in an "obvious" attempt to "put political pressure" on Canada to release Meng.

China's Foreign Ministry slammed Canada and the US by saying the countries' attempts to interfere in the cases against the two Canadians shows a "double standard".

"If Canada and the US believe that they are exercising judicial independence to arrest Meng Wanzhou, then why are they trying to interfere in China's justice department independently dealing with irrelevant cases?" said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a news conference Tuesday. "This is a double standard."