I’m pretty sure Justin Trudeau must have deeply sighed last Wednesday, run his hand through his ’80s-sized hair, and said sarcastically: right, thanks rule of law.
Thanks a lot. Really. Thanks.
Those damnable features of a democracy can sure stand in the way of a great idea.
The great idea was for Meng Wanzhou, the Shaughnessy-secluded CFO of Huawei Technologies, to get the court ruling she sought – that the charges she faces in the United States have no relevance here – and use a private jet at YVR to take her home to see her CEO father and run the business from there.
She had made a public cameo for a photo opportunity days earlier with a densely staged crowd of COVID-ignoring supporters of her cause on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, a site thick in irony as a protest hub in the city about injustices in need of remedy – a performance others would not dare stage in the streets of Beijing. She will get to hold many more if she wishes, although perhaps with the grace of physical distancing.
Because those courts! Those courts! Will they ever learn?
Now Trudeau, with that little problem of a pandemic as a priority, has the mess of a trading relationship with its face in the toilet again, has a tech titan seething, has its parent government devising a next step, has the infernal matter of a suppressed Hong Kong into his thick and thickening hair, and has to calculate into this Asian stew the plight of vulnerable Taiwan as the country that shall not be named – oh, and of course, an extradition hearing for Meng that might not be over before we are in our seats for live sports and arts. This is not at all, not at all, as the world might have unfolded. This is not at all, not at all, as Canada might have wished itself.
In an ideal world, this country would be a placid go-between of the America-China love-hate relationship and long-decided on its 5G technology path and Huawei’s ambition to be the decisive global vendor. Businesses would be proceeding with bated breath for the life-changing internet advancement. Consumers would be craving. At last, our online conference calls wouldn’t crackle.
But that is a sideshow to the main attractions of jeopardized trade with our second-largest partner or the official alienation of our largest. No matter how the courts eventually decide on Meng’s case, we are going to feel pain. When Meng was apprehended by Canadian authorities in December 2018 at the Vancouver airport, as Donald Trump was mansplaining at a Mar-a-Lago dinner to Xi Jinping, Canada neither realized it was a pawn in global chess nor expecting it would take blame’s brunt for agreeing with America to interrupt her routine business flight and send her into mansion seclusion.
This case, though, has kept amplifying the tension. China clearly arrested two Canadians – the two Michaels, Kovrig and Spavor – just for kicks. They would be on their way to freedom today if the BC Supreme Court had ruled differently Wednesday. It also tariffed and tied us in some knots.
I have heard many suggest China can’t afford to further alienate Canada in light of its sketchy early handling of the coronavirus, as if somehow we mattered to them one whit. If China wishes to punish us for our principled pursuit of the rule of law, it can and will.
For Trudeau, though, this cannot be a sidetracked file. As the prime minister, he has progressed into China’s lair playing down human rights issues and lately has breathed little word of our security service’s apprehensions about Huawei’s ambitions. He is trying to gain access to the market without alienating its demand for market dominance, but the dithering has paralyzed what ought to be progress in investment and commitment to important technology our industries will need to be competitive.
This skirmish is lost in the daily bouillabaisse of the pandemic’s nebulous but nefarious impact. It is important, though, for Trudeau to be held accountable however he proceeds. When the decision on 5G drops, he can’t announce it at the steps of his cottage or with one of those classic late-Friday summertime news releases any of us who worked in Ottawa so joyfully remember. He should argue the case in front of parliamentarians and Canadians – it is our most significant technology decision in a generation. •
Kirk LaPointe is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and the vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.
