A federal court judge has refused to give Meng Wanzhou access to sensitive information contained in reports about her arrest produced by Canada’s spy agency.
In a 35-page ruling released Tuesday, Judge Catherine Kane said the information that Canada’s attorney general is trying to keep from public view does not amount to the “missing pieces of the puzzle” the Huawei executive is seeking in an effort to prove that she was the victim of a conspiracy between Canadian and American law enforcement.
Kane’s ruling follows a week of hearings held in late July in relation to redactions — material blacked-out in Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents released to Meng’s lawyers as part of her battle against extradition to the United States.
The CSIS situation reports were prepared in the days before and after the 48-year-old’s arrest at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018. The attorney general argued that certain details in the documents should be shielded from public view under provisions of the Canada Evidence Act dealing with national security and international relations.
But Kane said that, after reviewing the information at the heart of the case, she found that the details in question were not relevant to the arguments Meng hopes to make.
CSIS released these heavily redacted documents to lawyers for Meng as part of extradition proceedings. (Jason Proctor/CBC)
The judge said Meng’s lawyers had argued that they were looking for information about the planning of the Huawei chief financial officer’s arrest, interagency co-operation, the execution of the arrest and evidence gathering. But none of that was contained in the blacked-out portions of the documents CSIS provided.
“The information does not provide the ‘missing pieces of the puzzle’ that Meng seeks,” Kane wrote.
“The redacted information does not respond to or illuminate the allegations of abuse of process and is not the type of information that counsel for Ms. Meng noted would be relevant.”
And even if it had been relevant, the judge said, she wouldn’t have been inclined to release it anyway.
“If any of the redacted information were marginally relevant — which it is not — the court would find that its disclosure would be injurious,” Kane said.
Accused of lying to banker
Meng is fighting extradition to the United States, where she is charged with fraud and conspiracy in relation to allegations that she lied to an HSBC banker about Huawei’s control of a company accused of violating U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.
Prosecutors claim that banks risked loss and prosecution by relying on Meng’s alleged lies to make decisions which saw them continuing to handle Huawei’s finances.
A still from a video taken during Meng’s first few hours in custody. (Court proceedings)
Next month, Meng’s lawyers plan to argue that the case should be tossed because Meng’s rights were violated at the time of her arrest. They claim that Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers detained and questioned Meng without a lawyer, seizing her electronic devices and compelling her to give up the passcodes before her official arrest.
The defence team claims the RCMP then acted at the behest of the FBI to gather and share technical information about Meng’s laptop, phones and tablets, in violation of the Extradition Act.
The Crown released six CSIS documents to the defence earlier this year in response to an order from Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, the B.C. Supreme Court judge overseeing the extradition case.
One day of federal court arguments over the redactions was held in public and the rest of the week’s hearings happened behind closed doors, with Meng’s attorneys excluded along with the public.
The attorney general had argued that releasing the hidden information could jeopardize Canada’s already damaged relationship with China and threaten the ability of CSIS to gather information from sources who trust that their identities won’t be revealed.
Decision on 37 more documents to come
Kane noted that the procedure to determine if sensitive details should be disclosed begins with a judge’s decision on the relevance of the information in the proceedings where it is intended to be used.
The judge then has to decide if releasing the information would be injurious and, finally, whether the public interest in disclosure would outweigh the public interest in keeping it sealed.
The CSIS documents in question never cleared the first hurdle in the process, she said.
The decision comes as Holmes is considering similar questions about details kept from public view in 37 more CBSA, RCMP and Department of Justice documents.
The Crown has argued that the information in those documents is protected by privilege associated with communications between lawyers and their clients and public interest.
Meng will make her next appearance in court in Vancouver in September, when her lawyers are expected to argue that her rights have been breached.
She has denied the allegations against her and is currently living under a form of house arrest after being released on $10 million bail in the days after her arrest. She is required to wear a monitoring bracelet on her ankle and is trailed by round-the-clock security.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
