OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by his ambassador to China in spite of Conservative calls for John McCallum to be fired for saying Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has “strong arguments” to fight extradition to the United States.

In a series of surprisingly frank comments, McCallum revealed new details about the strain on Canada-China relations, his opinion that Meng has “quite good” legal arguments against extradition, and the allied pressure Canada faces to ban Huawei.

Speaking Tuesday to mostly Chinese-language media in his former riding, McCallum expressed his hope that if the U.S. cuts a deal with China and drops Meng’s extradition, that China would release two detained Canadians.

But it was his comments on the merits of the U.S. case — which has not yet been fully presented with supporting documents to Canada’s Justice Department — that stunned many observers.

“I think she has quite good arguments on her side,” McCallum said. “One, political involvement by comments from Donald Trump in her case; two, there’s an extraterritorial aspect to her case; and three, there’s the issue of Iran sanctions, which are involved in her case, and Canada does not sign onto these Iran sanctions.”

Trudeau did not say he agreed with McCallum, but refused to publicly criticize him for breaking with the government’s practice of not commenting on a case before the court.

“I think part of the strength of our justice system is that people get to mount their own defence and I know she (Meng) will do that,” said Trudeau in Saskatchewan Wednesday.

Senior Canadian officials, who spoke to the Star on condition they not be named, said the ambassador’s comments were not part of any strategic plan

The case is tied up with a looming high-stakes decision on whether to ban Huawei from participating in Canada’s 5G network. McCallum said Canada has not yet made a decision but admitted there’s “pressure” to ban it.

“Other members of what we call the Five Eyes — United States, Australia, U.K., New Zealand — have said no to Huawei, or at least U.K., one of their big companies has. So there’s pressure on Canada to say no,” McCallum said.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said in an interview with CBC’s Power and Politics that “if I were prime minister, I would fire John McCallum.” He said it would show the government “fiercely” values the independence of Canadian courts, and will not stand for interference from anyone, including government officials.

McCallum revealed China’s leader is furious about Meng and suggested other Chinese officials have taken “the lead” from him.

After the RCMP arrested Meng on a U.S. extradition request, Chinese state security officials arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. A growing chorus of allies, diplomats and scholars have demanded their release.

“What I do know is that President Xi Jinping was very angry about this,” said McCallum. “And I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it is because Huawei is a national flagship company of China ... or there may be other reasons that I don’t know.”

McCallum said when the foreign ministry summoned him to formally object and demand Meng’s release, the meeting was “very hostile.”

“I am sorry that this incident, this difficult incident, arose. It was a total surprise for everybody in Canada,” he said. “But it happened, and we have to deal with it.”

Scheer suggested that McCallum’s news conference was a deliberate strategy by the Liberals to undercut the prosecution case against Meng.

“We can’t on the one hand go and defend our actions to the Chinese government by saying these decisions made by arms-length, independent security officials ... if then on the other hand the government is using our ambassador to China to interfere in the process to obtain a desired outcome,” said Scheer.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole said McCallum’s observations “potentially jeopardize the extradition process.” By providing a list of defence arguments before it even gets before the courts, O’Toole said McCallum was trying to “actually scuttle” or avoid the political decision on extradition that would have to eventually be made by the justice minister.

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McCallum described three possible outcomes in the Meng affair: that she is extradited, released by a Canadian court, or that the U.S. makes “some kind of a deal with China, and part of the deal would be that they would no longer seek her extradition.

“And we would hope, if the U.S. made such a deal, part of the deal would also be to release the two Canadians … but that is more under the control of the United States than it is under the control of Canada.”

The U.S. wants Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei, to face fraud charges, according to arguments at her bail hearing. It accuses her of misleading multinational banks about Huawei’s ties to a company doing business in Iran, putting them at risk of violating U.S. sanctions.

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