Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there was no interference from his government in the decision to arrest a senior executive of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies, a move that has put Canada on a collision course with Beijing.

There’s no reason to doubt what he says; the Canadian judicial system is as free of political pressure as any in the world.

But can the same be said these days of the U.S. Department of Justice, at whose request a Vancouver court is considering the possible extradition of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, to face charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran?

Canada may well be obliged to send Meng to face the charges in New York under Canada’s extradition treaty with the United States. But the underlying principle of such a treaty is that each country has confidence that the legal system of the other is grounded in the independent rule of law and not liable to be used as a political tool.

That’s why Canada doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the likes of, say, China. No one believes China’s courts are free from pressure by the government and the ruling Communist Party.

In the Huawei case, though, we are asked to accept that at a time of high tension between Washington and Beijing, focused on trade but involving a broader struggle for leadership of the world economy, it’s just a coincidence that the American Justice Department picked this moment to ask Canadian authorities to arrest and possibly extradite one of the most senior leaders of China’s premier international technology company.

There’s no connection, says the White House, between the arrest and the fact that Washington has been on a campaign to prevent Huawei from taking a leading role in next-generation 5G communications technology. At stake is who will dominate future global telecom networks, and there’s genuine concern that allowing Huawei to emerge on top would open the door to industrial espionage on a massive scale by a company tightly linked to the top levels of the Chinese government.

That, at least, is the line from the likes of Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on trade (and a noted hawk on China). He told Fox News the White House had no prior knowledge of the arrest and the Justice Department “acts independently” in such matters.

On the other hand... CNN reports that a “Trump administration official” says “the view among some officials is that (Meng Wanzhou) could be used as leverage with China in trade talks.” The Wall Street Journal editorializes that “the arrest is best understood as an attempt to get Beijing to stop abusing global trade norms.” Other reports suggest the arrest warrant was actually issued as part of a campaign by anti-China hardliners in the administration to derail trade talks between Washington and Beijing.

Regardless, it’s hard to accept that this was a totally hands-off move by the Trump Justice Department. Especially when the president himself has politicized the rule of law when it comes to corporations he doesn’t like. He’s taken aim at such companies as Amazon (whose CEO owns the Washington Post), General Motors (which is closing factories in states that voted for Trump), and AT&T (which owns CNN, his favourite media whipping boy).

Canada has no choice but to proceed with extradition procedures against Meng, as long as the charges meet the requirements of its extradition treaty with Washington. But the unfortunate reality is that we can have a lot less confidence in the integrity of the U.S. process now than we could have had in previous years.

Using the law and the court system as part of a political shake-down is the kind of move we might well expect from China itself. Under the Trump administration, sadly, it’s something we can’t rule out much closer to home.

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