No matter how the ruling goes today in the case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, it will have an impact on the fraught relationship between Canada and China.
A B.C. court is expected to issue a ruling today on the question of so-called “double criminality” in Meng’s extradition case — whether what Meng is accused of in the United States would be a crime in Canada. The judge could end up ruling in her favour, although Canada could appeal.
Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian issued a warning to Canada in his daily news conference.
“China’s position on the Meng Wanzhou case is consistent and clear,” he said. “The U.S. and Canada abused their bilateral extradition treaty and arbitrarily took compulsory measures against a Chinese citizen without cause. This is entirely a serious political incident that grossly violates the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizen.”
Zhao — who has used his Twitter account to promote a conspiracy theory claiming that a visiting U.S. military sports team deliberately released the novel coronavirus in China — continued:
“The Canadian side should immediately correct its mistake, release Ms. Meng and ensure her safe return to China at an early date so as to avoid any continuous harm to China-Canada relations.”
Optimism in party circles
The Global Times, the English-language mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, wrote this week that “legal experts are cautiously optimistic” and say that “Meng is ‘highly likely’ to be freed from a purely legal perspective if Canada truly has the judicial system completely independent from any political influence, as it always boasts.”
Lynette Ong, director of China initiatives at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, said Chinese officials seem genuinely to believe that the facts of the case, and Canadian law, favour Meng.
“I think they are expecting a favourable outcome,” she told CBC News. “I think that would be seen as a rightful and fair decision” in Beijing, rather than just a capitulation to Chinese pressure, because Meng’s lawyers have done a good job of raising doubts about the federal Department of Justice’s claim that Meng violated Canadian laws, she added.
Lynette Ong of the University of Toronto’s Munk School says she thinks Beijing is expecting a “favourable outcome” from today’s court hearing. (University of Toronto website)
On the other hand, Ong said, a ruling against Meng would be sure to renew Chinese allegations that Canada’s courts are not independent.
“Put it this way — no court in China is independent of the government. Therefore, the dominant mindset is that the Canadian courts are not independent either, not independent of the Canadian government and also not independent of the U.S. government,” she said.
Prominent Chinese academic and dissident Xiao Qiang agrees. “They see everything as politics, rather than an independent judicial system.”
Xiao Qiang is director of the Counter-Power Lab at UC Berkeley, which studies censorship, disinformation and propaganda with a strong focus on China.
“If the result is what China’s government welcomes, then they will interpret it as their pressure on Canada worked. If the result is not what China wanted, then they will see that as the Canadian government not giving them what they want.”
Reciprocity not guaranteed
The Chinese side may be optimistic, but any Canadian hoping that a favourable decision in the Meng case might lead China to quickly release Canadian detainees Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor would have found little to celebrate in Zhao’s statement yesterday.
“They were involved in activities endangering China’s national security,” Zhao said in his statement. “In accordance with law, China’s judicial authorities have been dealing with the cases independently and ensuring their legal rights. China urges the Canadian side to respect the spirit of the rule of law and China’s judicial sovereignty and stop making irresponsible remarks.”
A young man holds a sign bearing photographs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor outside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, where Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was attending a hearing, on January 21, 2020. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Chinese officials have steadfastly refused to acknowledge suggestions that Kovrig and Spavor are, in effect, hostages for Meng. Beijing’s representatives — including Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu — also have declined to discuss the vast differences in the treatment experienced by Meng and the two Canadians.
Kovrig and Spavor are being held alone in solitary confinement without access to lawyers or family members. Meng, meanwhile, took advantage of her generous bail conditions on Saturday to stage a celebratory photo shoot outside the B.C. Supreme Court.
Quid pro quo … or no?
Beijing has insisted that the two Canadians were arrested on legitimate national security grounds, and repeatedly denied they were being held in retaliation for Meng.
China has been censured by several other countries over the case, including the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia.
Xiao Qiang says it would now be difficult for Beijing to follow Meng’s release with a swift liberation of Kovrig and Spavor without conceding that they were, after all, just bargaining chips.
“For that reason China may not release them.”
China likely would want something like Richard Nixon’s “decent interval” to pass before engaging in such a naked transaction.
Ong said the next steps China takes will be determined partly by the groundwork Canadian diplomats in Beijing have done to prepare for today’s ruling.
“If Meng walks free, the two Michaels need to be released, they need to make sure that end of the bargain is fulfilled too,” she said.
“I don’t know what Ottawa is doing, but they really should be talking to their Beijing counterparts to discuss different scenarios of this case, and the implications for the fate of the two Michaels. I hope they are doing that.”
CBC News put that question to Global Affairs Canada. Spokesman Adam Austen responded: “While we cannot comment on a matter before the courts, we are closely following the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou currently in its judicial phase.
“When it comes to China, our top priority continues to be securing the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and calling for clemency for Canadians facing the death penalty in China, including Robert Schellenberg. We will continue to advocate on their behalf.”
Pandemic politics
China’s authoritarian government has been acting lately like an organization that knows it is living through a pivotal moment in its history. It has seen both danger and opportunity in the COVID-19 pandemic and has moved forcefully to forestall the former (as demonstrated by its PPE diplomacy around the world) and seize the latter — in Hong Kong, where it has proposed new national security laws that many see as an attempt to crush Hong Kong’s autonomy.
But the party has never lost sight of the Meng case.
Lately, Beijing has made a modest effort at mending fences with Canada as part of its attempt to bend the narrative of COVID-19 to one of international collaboration.
“China and Canada have been cooperating in the anti-epidemic fight,” opined the Global Times in its editorial Tuesday, “and are also cooperating on developing COVID-19 medicines and vaccines … In February, when China was hit hard by the virus, the Trudeau government provided 16 tons of anti-virus supplies. Later in March, the Bank of China returned the favour …
“Moreover, Canada has been keeping a rational attitude toward the U.S.’s well-calculated campaign of ‘holding China accountable’ for the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said.
American hostility growing
Still, today’s ruling comes at a time when China increasingly feels under pressure on the world stage.
In the U.S., President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden appear to be trying to out-do one another in taking a tough approach to China, with Trump accusing Biden of having given China “EVERYTHING they wanted, including rip-off Trade Deals.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has been trying to portray his opponent Joe Biden as soft on China. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Biden in turn accused Trump of turning a blind eye to China’s rights abuses and breaches of past agreements.
“It is no surprise China’s government believes it can act with impunity to violate its commitments. The administration’s protests are too little, too late — and Donald Trump has conspicuously had very little to say,” Biden said in a statement.
And U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien has continued to accuse China of perpetuating its own version of the Chernobyl cover-up with COVID-19. “We want good relations with China and with the Chinese people, but unfortunately, we’re seeing just action after action by the Chinese Communist Party that makes it difficult,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The hits keep coming
Meanwhile, in the U.K., Meng Wanzhou’s company Huawei (and China) suffered a major setback this week when Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to reverse an earlier decision allowing the Chinese firm to participate in the building of the country’s 5G system.
Up to 50 members of his own party were set to rebel against his government’s proposal to allow Huawei to participate up to a market share of 35 per cent. Johnson now says Huawei’s share will be reduced to zero by 2023.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have headed off a backbench revolt by downgrading Huawei’s role in his country’s 5G networks. (Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street /The Associated Press)
The threatened backbench revolt, and the government’s response to it, reflect the darkening mood toward China provoked by the Communist Party’s perceived efforts to leverage the pandemic for strategic and economic gains.
The U.S., which already had banned Huawei from its 5G network, went further on May 15 when it expanded the Commerce Department’s foreign direct product rule. “We will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to undermine the privacy of our citizens or the integrity of next-generation networks worldwide,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“Huawei is an untrustworthy vendor and a tool of the Chinese Communist Party, beholden to its orders,” Pompeo said, a charge Huawei’s founder, Meng’s father, has denied.
Canadians souring on China, Huawei
In Canada, too, the public’s attitude toward China has darkened dramatically, especially during the season of coronavirus.
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed China’s public standing in Canada even lower. According to a more recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute, just 14 per cent of Canadians have a favourable impression of China — and 85 per cent believe its government has not been honest about the pandemic.
Recent events also have affected how Canadians feel about Huawei. Even before the pandemic, two-thirds said they wanted the company barred from Canada’s 5G networks. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, the Angus Reid poll found that opposition had risen to more than four-fifths.
Lynette Ong said China may win the battle over Meng’s extradition only to find that it has lost a larger war for world public opinion — and is losing market share for its flagship company.
“I think there’s a considerable scar. I think Canadian society has a memory,” she said.
“In Canadian society, the pendulum has swung so much against China in the past year and a half, and even more so under this pandemic. And I really doubt it’s going to be healed any time soon, even if the two Michaels are released.
“But if Meng walks free and the two Michaels are not released … I don’t know. It would be an uproar.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Hearing the familiar sounds of clacking sticks and pucks banging off the boards and glass while watching Columbus Blue Jackets prospects from the stands of a cold rink on a warm late-summer afternoon was not enough to wash away the lingering residuals of grief for Don Waddell on Saturday.
That, the Blue Jackets’ general manager acknowledged, will take more time than anyone can guess — weeks, months, perhaps an entire season and beyond.
What mattered is how spending the weekend attending the Sabres Prospects Challenge represented a start to what Waddell called among the first steps in refocusing on hockey and the future in the aftermath of the deaths of Columbus star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, who were struck by a suspected drunken driver while riding bicycles on Aug 29.
“We got to play hockey,” Waddell said. “We’re not going to forget about Johnny and his family, the Gaudreau family.”
“Everybody knows that Johnny wants them to play hockey,” Waddell said. “And everybody’s rallying around that.”
The resumption of hockey in Columbus began last week, when most Blue Jackets players returned to their facility to be together and lean on each other at the urging of Waddell and team captain Boone Jenner. And it will continue on Thursday, when the team opens training camp, exactly three weeks since the Gaudreaus were killed.
“Tragic. Senseless. But now we got to focus on trying to get our team ready to play hockey this year,” Waddell said. “We all mourn and heal differently, but I think as a team being together like that is going to be critical for them to get moving forward.”
Waddell was general manager of the then-Atlanta Thrashers in 2003 when Dany Heatley lost control of his car and struck a wall, with the crash killing passenger and teammate Dan Snyder. In 2021, Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks died during a July Fourth fireworks accident.
Waddell placed the emphasis on himself and coach Dean Evason — both newcomers to Columbus this offseason — to guide the team through what will be an emotional season.
“Now, do I think there’s going to be some dark days? I won’t be surprised,” Waddell said.
Reminders of the Gaudreaus’ deaths remain apparent, and reflected in Buffalo on Friday night. A moment of silence was held in tribute to the brothers before the opening faceoff of a game between the Blue Jackets and Sabres.
Afterward, Columbus prospect Gavin Brindley recalled the times he spent with Johnny Gaudreau in Columbus and as teammates representing the United States at the world hockey championships in the Czech Republic in May.
“He was one of the biggest mentors for me at the world championships,” Brindley said. “I couldn’t tell you how many times we hung out with Meredith, pictures on my phone. It’s just so hard to look back and see that kind of stuff.”
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are providing the Blue Jackets help in the form of grief counseling, crowd security at vigils and addressing hockey issues, such as potentially altering the league’s salary cap rules to provide Columbus relief from having to reach the NHL minimum payroll because of the void left by Gaudreau’s contract.
“The Blue Jackets, I don’t think anybody’s focused from an organizational standpoint, from a hockey standpoint as to what comes next, because I think everybody’s still in shock,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told The Associated Press last week. “I don’t think anybody’s focused right now other than on the grieving part, which is understandable.”
Much of the burden has fallen to Waddell, who has been in discussions with the NHL and the NHLPA and dealing with outreach programs with the Blue Jackets’ partner OhioHealth, while also overseeing preparations for training camp and gauging his prospects in Buffalo.
There’s also his roster to attend to, which he said has two openings at forward, one involving Justin Danforth, who may miss the start of the season because of a wrist injury. Waddell didn’t have to mention the second opening.
Tiring and emotional as it’s been, Waddell found comfort being in his element, a rink, and looking ahead to the start of training camp.
“The guys are in really good shape. We’ve done a lot of testing already and they’re eager to get going,” Waddell said. “We have a reason to play for. And we’ll make the best of it.”
The Blue Jackets later Sunday signed veteran winger James van Riemsdyk to a one-year contract worth $900,000.
“James van Riemsdyk has been a very consistent, productive player throughout his career,” Waddell said. “Bringing him to Columbus will not only provide depth to our group up front, but also valuable leadership and another veteran presence in our dressing room.”
___
AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed to this report.
PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain defender Nuno Mendes was the target of abusive and racist comments on social media after a French league game.
The club condemned the abuse and expressed its “full support” Sunday for the Portugal left back, who was targeted following PSG’s 3-1 win against Brest on Saturday.
Mendes, who is Black, shared on his Instagram account a racist message he received.
During the match, Mendes brought down Ludovic Ajorque in the box for a penalty that Romain Del Castillo converted to give Brest the lead.
“Paris Saint-Germain doesn’t tolerate racism, antisemitism or any other form of discrimination,” the club said. “The racial insults directed at Nuno Mendes are totally unacceptable … we are working with the relevant authorities and associations to ensure those responsible are held accountable for their actions.”
MONTREAL – Tadej Pogacar was so dominant on Sunday, Canada’s Michael Woods called it a race for second.
Pogacar, a three-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia, pedalled to a resounding victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal.
The UAE Team Emirates leader crossed the finish line 24 seconds ahead of Spain’s Pello Bilbao of Bahrain — Victorious to win the demanding 209.1-kilometre race on a sunny, 28 C day in Montreal. France’s Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step was third.
“He’s the greatest rider of all time, he’s a formidable opponent,” said Woods, who finished 45 seconds behind the leader in eighth. “If you’re not at your very, very best, then you can forget racing with him, and today was kind of representative of that.
“He’s at such a different level that if you follow him, it can be lights out.”
Pogacar slowed down before the last turn to celebrate with the crowd, high-five fans on Avenue du Parc and cruise past the finish line with his arms in the air after more than five hours on the bike.
The 25-year-old joined Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet as the only multi-time winners in Montreal after claiming the race in 2022. He also redeemed a seventh-place finish at the Quebec City Grand Prix on Friday.
“I was disappointed, because I had such good legs that I didn’t do better than seventh,” Pogacar said. “To bounce back after seventh to victory here, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
It’s Pogacar’s latest win in a dominant year that includes victories at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Ottawa’s Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) tied a career-best in front of the home crowd in Montreal, but hoped for more after claiming a stage at the Spanish Vuelta two weeks ago.
“I wanted a better result,” the 37-year-old rider said. “My goal was a podium, but at the same time I’m happy with the performance. In bike racing, you can’t always get the result you want and I felt like I raced really well, I animated the race, I felt like I was up there.”
Pogacar completed the 17 climbs up and down Mount Royal near downtown in five hours 28 minutes 15 seconds.
He made his move with 23.3 kilometres to go, leaving the peloton in his dust as he pedalled into the lead — one he never relinquished.
Bilbao, Alaphilippe, Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) and Bart Lemmen (Visma–Lease) chased in a group behind him, with Bilbao ultimately separating himself from the pack. But he never came close to catching Pogacar, who built a 35-second lead with one lap left to go.
“It was still a really hard race today, but the team was on point,” Pogacar said. “We did really how we planned, and the race situation was good for us. We make it hard in the last final laps, and they set me up for a (takeover) two laps to go, and it was all perfect.”
Ottawa’s Derek Gee, who placed ninth in this year’s Tour de France, finished 48th in Montreal, and called it a “hard day” in the heat.
“I think everyone knows when you see Tadej on the start line that it’s just going to be full gas,” Gee said.
Israel Premier-Tech teammate Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Que., was 51st.
Houle said he heard Pogacar inform his teammates on the radio that he was ready to attack with two laps left in the race.
“I said then, well, clearly it’s over for me,” Houle said. “You see, cycling isn’t that complicated.”
Australia’s Michael Matthews won the Quebec City GP for a record third time on Friday, but did not finish in Montreal. The two races are the only North American events on the UCI World Tour.
Michael Leonard of Oakville, Ont., and Gil Gelders and Dries De Bondt of Belgium broke away from the peloton during the second lap. Leonard led the majority of the race before losing pace with 45 kilometres to go.
Only 89 of 169 riders from 24 teams — including the Canadian national team — completed the gruelling race that features 4,573 metres in total altitude.
Next up, the riders will head to the world championships in Zurich, Switzerland from Sept. 21 to 29.
Pogacar will try to join Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987) as the only men to win three major titles in a season — known as the Triple Crown.
“Today gave me a lot of confidence, motivation,” Pogacar said. “I think we are ready for world championships.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
