OTTAWA – Legal experts are raising red flags about “disguised extraditions” after a letter obtained by Global News shows Canadian border officials met with their Chinese counterparts to discuss what to do with fugitives sought by the communist country.
The letter, dated July 2012, invites members of China’s Economic Crime Investigation Department to meet with the Canadian Border Services Agency officials in Mississauga, Ont. on Aug. 3, 2012.
According to the letter: “The purpose of the meeting is to provide the Chinese delegation with background information on managing Chinese fugitives… and to discuss two specific cases which are alleged fugitives from justice…”
(Full text: CBSA letter)
The Chinese delegation was also invited to give presentations and provide evidence on each case for the CBSA.
The same night a group of CBSA managers met with Chinese officials at a Mississauga restaurant, a meeting that made headlines after the Canadians allegedly got drunk with their guests.
“CBSA is using deportation as disguised extradition,” said Audrey Macklin, a law professor at the University of Toronto. “Essentially China is recruiting Canada to do its dirty work for it and circumventing extradition. This does not look good on CBSA or Canada.”
Extradition normally requires a country to formally request that Canada return an alleged fugitive – a decision that is made by the federal justice minister and an extradition judge.
Canada usually forbids the extradition of suspects to countries where they will face the death penalty or a corrupt legal system.
Deportation is used when Canada acts on its own to kick out a foreign national, generally for immigration, security or crime-related reasons.
Immigration experts like Macklin say Canada should be wary of dealing with China given the gaps in its legal system.
A 2010 human rights report from the U.S. State Department states “torture,” “coerced confessions,” “a lack of due process,” “closed trials,” and “political control of judges,” are all part of China’s legal system.
“To avoid the extradition process is to do an end run and facilitate the return of people to face what could be inhumane, unjust conditions of abuse, torture and unfairness,” Macklin said.
Canada successfully deported Chinese businessman Lai Changxing in 2011 to face charges he ran a $10 billion smuggling ring in China. Lai’s deportation took more than ten years of tense diplomatic relations between Canada and China and came with a promise he would not be executed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman has seen firsthand the reliability of Chinese investigators. He cross-examined one who was brought to Canada to testify at an immigration hearing.
On the stand, the Chinese official denied the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre even though reports put the death toll in the hundreds and some in the thousands.
“The CBSA was forced to say the witness was from an authoritarian regime who wouldn’t tell the truth,” Waldman said. “Having acknowledged that…we are still dealing with these officials and still doing their bidding.”
Macklin said if China wants fugitives returned Canada shouldn’t be deporting them, instead China should be forced to use the extradition process, which has a number of legal safeguards.
“Extradition puts stricter requirements on the state who is requesting extradition that it has evidence that is capable or constituting genuine criminal offence and the process it uses both to get evidence and to try an individual charged with a criminal offence meets basic human rights and fairness standards,” she said.
Both Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and the Canadian Border Services Agency declined interviews with Global News.
Opposition critics wonder why the Conservative government is allowing this kind of collaboration with the Chinese.
NDP immigration critic Jinny Sims called the meeting “thoroughly inappropriate.”
“There is no secret that the Chinese government has less than a stellar reputation for human rights and for persecutions,” Sims said. “Surely if there is a request from the Chinese government to extradite someone, we have to follow our own processes.”
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