By Canadian Press

Border executive had no worries about officer conduct related to Meng Wanzhou case

Dec 11, 2020 | 3:25 PM

VANCOUVER — A former executive with the Canada Border Services Agency says she had no concerns about the conduct of border officers involved in detaining Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested at Vancouver airport on behalf of the United States.

Roslyn MacVicar served as the director general for the border agency in the Pacific region at the time of Meng’s arrest on Dec. 1, 2018, though she told B.C. Supreme Court on Friday she was out of town at the time.

MacVicar, now retired, testified she doesn’t recall giving her staff specific direction about record keeping related to Meng’s questioning at the airport, but her senior managers would have known that was expected.

Nicole Goodman, who oversaw passenger operations for the border agency, told the court this week that MacVicar advised her not to make additional records about the case in the weeks following Meng’s arrest because the notes could be part of an access to information request.

MacVicar is testifying as part of an evidence-gathering hearing in which Meng’s lawyers are honing in on the circumstances of their client’s arrest to support an abuse of process argument they’re set to make next year.

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The Huawei CFO is wanted on fraud and conspiracy charges over allegations that she and Huawei put a bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions in Iran, allegations both Meng and the company deny.

The court heard Thursday that Meng’s lawyers are planning to introduce a new legal argument alleging she was subjected to an abuse of process and she should be freed, in addition to three ongoing branches of arguments.

Her legal team has so far alleged their client was used as a bargaining chip for political purposes by U.S. President Donald Trump, that U.S. officials misled their Canadian counterparts by leaving key information out of its record of the case, and that Meng’s detention and arrest were unlawful.

The court heard her lawyers plan to file the fourth branch of argument on Monday, but further details of the argument weren’t shared.

The extradition case is ongoing amid media reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is a deal that would see Meng admit to some wrongdoing and in exchange be allowed to leave Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2020.

The Canadian Press