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

The Meng Wanzhou-Huawei saga continues in Canada, and Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are being held hostage in China. What does this mean for the rest of Canada's relations with China? And what will Justin Trudeau do about it?

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 0.99

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

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

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