VANCOUVER -- Serial numbers associated with Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou's electronic devices were a "gateway" to her private information and were improperly obtained by the RCMP to appease the United States, one of her lawyers said Friday.
Fenton made the accusations during a hearing in the B.C. Supreme Court over whether Meng was subjected to an abuse of process and her extradition proceedings should be stayed.Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport on Dec. 1, 2018, to face fraud charges in the United States related to economic sanctions against Iran that both she and Huawei deny. Her electronic devices were seized and stored in an RCMP evidence locker.
Lawyers for Canada's attorney general have not yet responded in court, but in court documents they say there is no evidence to suggest the U.S. sought the information for any purpose other than to particularize the request under the treaty. Fenton argued that the "unprecedented" refusal to testify by the now-retired senior RCMP officer who acted as a go-between for the FBI and Dhaliwal only complicates matters. Staff Sgt. Ben Chang's failure to appear in court means there is no direct evidence that the numbers were ultimately passed to the FBI, Fenton said.
So it appears that the RCMP were very naughty. We expect our police forces to pay attention to the law. In this case apparently, they did not.