Juno News - Meng Wanzhou's extradition case will proceed. What now？

00:00:00.000 It looks like the Meng Wanzhou-Huawei saga continues in Canada. On Wednesday, a judge

00:00:10.660 effectively ruled in BC that, yes, the case is going to go forward. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's

00:00:15.860 lawyers, they wanted to say, well, this doesn't really apply here because what she's charged

00:00:19.940 with in the extradition hearings, it's a crime in the US, not in Canada. The judge said, no,

00:00:24.660 we're still going ahead with this. So what does this mean now? Because word on the street is the

00:00:30.380 reason why Justin Trudeau is shying away from criticizing China, why he's shying away from

00:00:35.220 making a decision on Huawei, is because this is ongoing in the courts, and China has Michael

00:00:41.360 Kovrig and Michael Spavor held as leverage, two hostages, basically for a negotiation set up here.

00:00:47.560 They have all but admitted that when you see the communications coming from representatives of

00:00:52.500 their government. So what happens now? Now, I certainly was supporting the idea that rule

00:00:57.440 of law would happen, and Meng Wanzhou would stand trial, she'd be found guilty, or innocent,

00:01:01.660 or they'd release her, whatever the judge would decide. And I had thought, if, if they do let her

00:01:07.100 go, which I did not think would happen, and I didn't want to see happen, but if they did that,

00:01:11.500 okay, fine. You get the two Michaels soon thereafter, and as soon as you confirm those guys are on Canadian

00:01:17.080 soil, you've got them back in the castle, you bring up the drawbridge. Bam! You ban Huawei the very next

00:01:23.800 day. So you send a firm signal that we don't care for this sort of hostage negotiation stuff.

00:01:29.460 It ain't gonna fly. That is obviously not happening anytime soon now, because the Meng Wanzhou saga

00:01:34.620 continues, but it still begs the question then, when is Justin Trudeau going to make a tough decision

00:01:40.560 on these matters? On the Huawei 5G issue? On many other issues when it comes to criticizing China now

00:01:46.280 during the coronavirus? There's also other decisions that are going to be rising to the fore.

00:01:51.620 You've got TMAC Resources, which is a company, a mine, a Canadian mine that's near the Arctic Circle,

00:01:57.260 a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is attempting to buy. Industry Canada can decide whether they approve

00:02:02.060 or disapprove of that deal. What's going to happen there on that front? Sooner or later,

00:02:07.200 Trudeau is just going to have to make a decision based on what's right, based on principle. He can't

00:02:13.020 wait up the clock on this trial, and more importantly and alarmingly, you get Michael Kovrig and Michael

00:02:18.900 Spavor back. What's to stop China from then holding other Canadians hostage next? It's not like we

00:02:25.060 suddenly say, okay, we got these guys back and that's it. There's no connection between the two

00:02:29.000 countries anymore. Are you kidding me? At any given time, there are many Canadian academics,

00:02:33.760 prominent business individuals, ex-diplomats who are there in China, and the government could

00:02:39.560 detain them at any point and play the same game again. So eventually, we're just going to have to

00:02:44.180 stop playing weakness. We're going to have to stop treading water and make a decision, make a stand,

00:02:50.200 and say, enough is enough.

Juno News - May 28, 2020