Huawei Executive Granted Bail by Canadian Court

How is it legal in International law to put sanctions on a partner who followed all points stipulated in a contract (Iran)? How is it legal that the US strongarms the whole world not to deal with Iran (or lose their US business)? How is it legal to top that by not only vowing fines or cancelling of US business - but even arresting foreign nationals on foreign soil for subverting (illegitimate) US sanctions? (I am not saying Huawei is angelic - but may I quote Trump: "We are not that innocent either") (BTW, Trump did not invent that. The US used the same strongarmed policy on Cuba.) Time for the world or the UN to counter US breaks of contract and stop their dictatorial behavior. The veto power should be taken away. It was put into place when we had principled people like Eleanor Roosevelt represent the US. Now we have a TV anchor who can read political news but does not know how to make any.

Meanwhile, China is holding a former Canadian diplomat hostage. Canadian courts need to follow the law, and if it turns out the extradition order is valid, she needs to be extradited to face the charges. And if something were to happen to Mr. Kovrig, then Canada would respond appropriately, hopefully with assistance from its closest ally. That the President is treating this arrest as a negotiating tactic is beyond despicable.

Has Canada’s justice system become an instrument of US trade policy? Trump’s recent tweets that he would intervene to release Ms. Wenzhou, if it suited US trade objectives would clearly indicate that Canada, in acting to arrest her, are not serving the ends of Canadian justice, but rather Mr Trumps America First world view. Given this irrefutable fact, I, as a Canadian, would urge Prime Minister Trudeau, to order her immediate unconditional release.

It will be interesting to see what our independent Canadian judiciary makes of the extradition request by the American government particularly when POTUS says he may use Ms Wanzhou’s situation as a negotiating point in his trade negotiation with China. We are a country of the “rule of law”. Is the US a country of the rule of politics? I hope The Canadian court slams politically motivated sanctions based on trade negotiations. I support Meng!

Normally, I would be disturbed by this special treatment for this billionaire defendant. But in this case there is no point in investing any emotion in the matter. In order to feed his image as America's billionaire great dealmaker president, Trump will surely trade away any criminal liability this billionaire woman has in exchange for some worthless promises from the China totalitarian government (just as he did with ZTE's liability.)

I am surprised that no one has noticed that Trump has admitted that the US justice system is not independent of politics. He has said that he would intervene in this Huawei case if it would give the US a better trade deal with China. This means the US justice system is being used by its politicians to extort trade deals - which is banana republic behavior.

Canada should free her and take their lumps from their closest ally. Shame on us.

"24-hour physical and electronic surveillance" is valuable psychological guidance for any telecom executive.

The world views U.S. "sanctions" against other nation-states, sans approval of the U.N. and WTO, as cowboy gun-slinging. Trump America would do well to proceed with less arrogance. Westerns seldom end well.

This arrest is thinly cloaked xenophobia. It's racist. A European would never be arrested by Canadians for the Americans in a similar situation, their company would simply be fined.

Canada honours the existing extradition treaty with the US Justice Department. We do the right thing for our "ally" and neighbour. President Idiot throws us under the bus. He will "Intervene if necessary" Time for my country to create as much distance as possible with the American Banana Regime - this really is absolutely disgusting behaviour from the oval office - screw the States, they are morphing into a fascist state and chewing up their people for greed and tax breaks. I'm sick of it

Ms. Weng and her family own not one but two large, valuable properties in Vancouver, that we know of. This is part of the problem for Vancouverites. So much real estate is bought up like sticks of gum by Chinese nationals, who may or may not occupy them. Many of them have filthy money as well. Why is this even allowed? Including within the US? We should not be importing Chinese grift.

Release her to the safety of the Saudi embassy.

Will she still be under surveillance when she slips back into China?

Ten bucks says she flies the coop.

The arrest of Meng from Huawei is a political mess in search of an international scandal. Putting someone in jail for business disagreements reminds me of putting people in 'debtor's prisons' when they couldn't repay their debts. This issue should have been handled diplomatically between the US and the Chinese long before Ms. Meng was even in Canada. Now this issue has apparently been simmering for a long while, yet we know that Trump will somehow use this to his personal advantage. The underlying aspect to this case is the hysterical reaction to Huawei from Western countries. In fact there is 0 evidence that Huawei handsets/phones are any more of a security risk than any of the western models. Networking is another story, but all networks misuse data whether they are US, European, or Chinese companies. So as the US attempts to punish Huawei and Ms. Meng for setting up a questionable subsidiary, the DOJ is essentially going after her for doing what is standard practice for every US company worldwide. I would imagine US CEO's know this and won't be taking any Chinese trips for the foreseeable future.

The original purpose of extradition was to apprehend criminals fleeing justice and return them to the country where they committed their crimes. As the criminal had already fled, bail was normally denied as the flight risk had been demonstrated. Unfortunately extradition has been perverted to the current situation where people who have never set foot in the US are commonly extradited to the US. There was not much complaint when drug traffickers were extradited, but it's now commonplace for teens and young adults to be extradited for keyboard sins in their bedrooms – when the truly guilty are managers and officials who refuse to put proper resources into computer security. There's strong evidence that poor computer security practices contributed to tilting the last presidential election. But here we see an attempt to enforce US law in foreign countries - assuming Meng's presentation to HSBC was made outside the US. As we are seeing, innocent Canadian citizens get detained for several months, even years, in China whenever Canada detains a Chinese national for extradition. Canada's first obligation is to its citizens. Seeing that the US lately has acquired the habit of unilaterally amending treaties, Canada should follow suit by refusing to commence extradition of people who were not in the country requesting extradition when the alleged crime was committed.

The US Department of Justice sends an extradition request to Canada. This was a political choice, not a legal obligation. The point was to Trumpet America's intention to ruthlessly enforce its unilateral sanctions against Iran, even though Trump voluntarily withdrew from the 8 country nuclear agreement. It is foreseeable this will put Canada in China's cross-hairs. This is after Trump placed tariffs on Canadian steel in violation of its treaty obligations, on the spurious ground that Canada is a security risk to the US. Then the US bullies Canada in the Nafta talks. Canada is a rule of law country. Once Canada receives the extradition request Canada honours its treaty obligations by processing the request through its courts: a judicial, not a political process. Canada does so even though it appears that the extradition request may be motivated by politics rather than justice. China then retaliates against Canada - but not the US - by arresting an innocent and uninvolved Canadian businessman. It takes China days even to acknowledge the arrest and then come up with an excuse for it. No one is expected to believe the reason. The unembarrassed lie is part of the intimidation. The move of a classic bully: pick on the little guy, fear the big guy. Then Trump says he will intervene. Of course. This was always political from the US side. Lessons to the world? Befriend Americans and Chinese. Deplore and distrust their governments. Find new trading partners.

I'm surprised by many of the comments here. While we may bemoan some of the U.S. decisions surrounding restrictions on trade with Iran, what's happening here is the normal process of international law. From the reporting I've seen, there's no reason to believe that the timing of Ms. Meng's detainment coinciding with Trump and Xi's meeting and "agreement" was anything but incidental. While the situation does, no doubt, complicate the negotiations between the U.S. and China, there is no reason to subvert the rule of law to smooth the process. In fact, it's imperative that the U.S. show that legal norms will be held to. We do not want to become a country like China that detains and releases people according to political whims. Their recent detainment of Michael Kovrig wreaks of political tit for tat. Bravo to Canada for the details of bail--they appear well thought out. Shame on Huawei if they did, indeed, participate in fraud.

There was an article in the Times yesterday saying the US needs to consider how this is playing out in China when deciding how to move forward. I hope the DOJ does not heed that advice. The allegations are severe - personally directing a fraud to skirt US sanctions on Iran. I would hope we would adhere to the concept of the rule of law and not let it get bound up in politics. If the evidence against her is solid, then we need to present it to the Canadian court so that she is extradited, and then we need to prosecute her. If the evidence against her is weak, then she should be let go. That should be the only consideration. I don't want to erode the rule of law for political reasons.

Odd that a woman is being detained and prosecuted when corporate/stock corruption by men is so rampant around the world. Another Cheryl Sandberg moment? Another Martha Stewart and Leona Helms moment? Another Hillary Rodham Clinton moment? Another Theresa May moment? I have no idea if she is guilty or not. However, her father is the one who set up and ran the company. Just more proof that male developed systems we live under make it very easy to prosecute women for men's crimes. It must end right now and socially conscious women around the world will make it so by stepping up to take one-half the power.

Bail or no bail is not the real question. The real fight is will Canada Extradite her to the United States? If they do and she loses her appeals she almost certainly will flee, no matter how many millions in collateral she has put up. So nothing really decided at this point the real hard choice will be to extradite her. Does Canada have the will? Will Little Potato earn his nickname or show the Chinese it was a misnomer?

I do not understand the confusion here. The U.S. has every right to pass a law saying we disapprove of the sale of arms to Iran by anyone doing business with us. The penalty for violation is imprisonment. Remember Ms Huawei was arrested because it was a private company not the Chinese government selling to Iran. The U.S. Government like most states have extradition treaties with their allies. (The only cases Canada refuses to extradite are where the criminal will face the death penalty) On an outstanding warrant Canada detained Ms. Huawei as the U.S. does for Canada on a daily basis. My only concern is if she is extradited to the U.S. and Present Trump pardons her Canada will bear the brunt of the Chinese antagonism. Sometimes it is the price you pay for upholding the rule of law.

Now, I feel the whole saga looked like that the biased Canadian elites to enrich personal fame and fortunes. Oops, what do I know about the international poker games? In terms of our poor former diplomat (an elite), he would be fine. He has many personal connections in Beijing. The whole point of being a diplomat is to build a local network with powerful people. Am I right?

Invoking Extradition Treaty to detain the Huawei executive is the amoral equivalent of invoking US national security to impose punitive tariffs on Canadian-made steel and aluminum. In effect, Trump is leaning on the next-door neighbour with both elbows to gain a pawn in his trade war with China. That's more or less in keeping with all the other signals he sends. Americans should not affect puzzlement at the blank stares they get when they talk about friendship.

Trump throws Canada under the bus in his trade war. Now in reverse, he backs over her again.

Neocynic i am a Canadian and i share your concern for Canada's decision to detain his person .However i am more concerned with the actions of US Politicians who pressure its allies to cooperate but routinely snub its allies on many issues.Example the US allows Chinese companies to sell aluminum ad steel to the U S with no tariffs while charging a tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum.Furthermore the U S politicians falsify trade data excluding Services,include trans shipments through Canada as Cdn sourced product when the U S has implicitly approved the purchase of these products by American Corporations.I could write a book on the lies of the GOP and Trump.So don't tell me i should be ashamed ,tell your own misguided leaders to stop looking after themselves and their next election or next job .

There are so many wrongs in this incidence. For one thing how could Canadian government without proof on behalf of US government detained and put a high ranking officer of a Chinese company in jail. Does US domestic law applicable to Canada or any other country? Even if a company violet the UN sanction which this case is not, I would have question on the detention of any individual from the company. The more I read this, the more I think the detainee is a leverage against China in trade negotiation.

All Canadians should feel embarrassed and ashamed by this blatantly politically motivated kidnapping and arrest of Huawei's CFO. Cowardly Canadian officials allowed their greater loyalty to American neocons and their militarist agenda to trump their presumed loyalty to Canada's best interests and the rule of law. If anyone should be in jail, it should be those officials for treason. Sad sad day for all Canadians.

disgusting treatment of one individual where this is clearly a political ploy to hurt the company.

She gets bail in Canada; a Canadian in China is detained without official explanation. Time to stop using trade to prop up totalitarian regimes.

I’m no lawyer so I fail to understand how it’s possible for US sanction laws to apply extraterritorially to anyone anywhere on the planet. In any case, how ironic that the Trump administration that unilaterally violated the Iran nuclear agreement, which was also adopted officially by the Security Council and so should have the force of international law, has the legal and moral authority to ask other governments to apprehend foreign citizens abroad on this same ground.

I sincerely hope this does damage China’s relationship with Canada. We need our housing and control over our natural resources back. Now I know how our aboriginals felt.

The judge clearly folded in the face of political pressure. Too bad. Another nail in the coffin for democracy. Nice to see rich people avoid jail if they can afford to pay for security guards, etc.

Canada needs to be extremely careful about this situation in which they have been ensnared. There are so many international considerations at play in this drama. The Chinese population in Canada is over a million and they are major contributors to our country of over 36 million. With respect, the US is not interested in the law regarding Meng but are rather reaching for leverage over China, which if they achieve will severely damage Canada China relations. There are predictions that this century will belong to China. Anyone who knows the country and their accomplishments do not doubt this. If Canada is thinking the long game we may even manage to contribute to human rights growth in the process.

The bail conditions are some of the most onerous I have ever seen but there is a lot of international face saving riding on the outcome of this matter. A lot could happen between now and the next hearing in early February 2019, including the US filing a formal request for her extradition. The blow back by China has already started with the arrest and detention of a Canadian businessman. The US has essentially placed an economic blockade on Iran much like the one they have placed on Cuba and regime change is not about to happen in either country and on the latter it has been in place well over 50 years. The behavior of states such as Israel and Saudi Arabia are as worthy of sanction as Iran and Cuba - if not more so - but the former are the US 's friends.

What possible interest or business is it of the U.S. if China wants to do business with Iran? What if China demanded, under penalty of law, that the Americans stop selling arms to the murderous Saudi regime? They'd be laughed at. The hypocrisy of the Americans is risible.

She was arrested by HSBC's reports to US authorities in which she may be or may be not violating international laws on Iran's issues. The question is whether US courts have enough evidences in order to extradite her to the US for the trial. Probably President Trump helps her release as he said due to the US's benefits with China. So what? Trump will take more gains with China on the import-export war, and he will win in the next president election. In this case Meng Wanzhou she helps Trump.

Donnyboy, This is Canada, not Amerika. We may kowtow to your whims and snit fits, but we still have laws based on being innocent until proven guilty.

Trump has China Tech envy, China Wall envy and China Presidential Power envy. Orchestrating this long arm jurisdiction arrest was a schoolyard bully response to a superior culture.