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You can almost hear the laughter in Beijing.

After Canada recently found itself in the uncomfortable position of being in a diplomatic standoff with China, there’s a phrase the Chinese have heard over and over again from senior Liberal officials: “rule of law.”

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The rule of law is why Canadian authorities had no choice but to arrest and detain Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese national and executive with Huawei Technologies. The U.S. government, wanting Meng to face extradition on fraud charges related to violating sanctions on Iran, had filed a lawful request for Canada to arrest her while she was in Vancouver. Canada’s position was clear: whatever the politics between the U.S., China and Canada, Meng could expect completely aboveboard treatment. Because Canada is governed by the rule of law. It sounded principled. It sounded authentic.

Photo by Darryl Dyck/CP

“I believe very strongly that it is absolutely essential for Canada to remain a rule-of-law country in how we behave,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said at an event in Toronto. “A rule of law is not like a smorgasbord … You have to accept them all, so that’s the fundamental point.”

Well. About that.

This week, The Globe and Mail reported that the Prime Minister’s Office may have been picking and choosing at what parts of the rule of law it prefers. The story is that the PMO had been pressuring then attorney general and justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to go easy on Quebec-based SNC-Lavalin. The company has for years faced serious charges related to a long-standing culture of bribery and corruption (since reformed, it insists), in this case specifically about allegedly greasing government contracts in Libya. SNC-Lavalin has been lobbying the government for years to seek a settlement — anything to avoid a conviction, which would disqualify the company from winning future government contracts both here in Canada and abroad. Last year, the Trudeau government amended the Criminal Code to make just these kinds of deals possible, no doubt with the Liberal-friendly folks at SNC-Lavalin’s Montreal headquarters in mind. But the ultimate decision to prosecute or not was to rest with the public prosecutor, which has proceeded to press criminal charges. Wilson-Raybould was allegedly facing pressure from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office to guide the public prosecutor toward a settlement instead.