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A Canadian border officer admitted at Huawei’s executive Meng Wanzhou’s extradition hearing on Wednesday that he lost possession of the passwords for his electronic devices and handed them over to federal police.
Scott Kirkland of the Canada Border Services Agency said it is common for travelers to be asked to provide passwords and access codes during an inspection, as Meng did on December 1, 2018 during a Canadian stopover from Hong Kong. .
He said he usually writes passwords on a sticky note or piece of paper that is returned to them later.
But after turning Meng over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), when he couldn’t find the piece of paper with his access codes, he realized that he had given them to the RCMP.
“I didn’t know,” he said, “if that paper went with (the RCMP), or with the folder we created, or if it was still on the counter. I looked at the counter and the folder, but no I can’t find it.”
Handing over access codes to the RCMP is a violation of Canadian privacy laws. “You are not allowed to transmit that information,” Kirkland said.
Earlier, defense attorney Richard Peck accused a Canadian policeman of giving an “not honest” answer on whether Meng should be extradited to the United States.
The prosecution turned to testimony from RCMP Sheriff Winston Yep about why he delayed Meng’s arrest on a US warrant during his stopover in Vancouver.
Meng is wanted by the United States on fraud charges related to violations of US sanctions on Iran.
Yep testified that she did not immediately arrest Meng when her flight landed for “security reasons”, and told the court that she could have had a knife, secret bodyguards or even “counter-surveillance” agents with her.
She also said that border officials wanted to question her first about her immigration status.
But Peck replied: “My opinion is that this is not an honest answer. Safety was never an issue; that is my suggestion.”
Meng was questioned by the CBSA for almost three hours without legal representation, before being arrested by the RCMP.
The defense contends that Canadian authorities conspired with the United States to delay Meng’s arrest and obtain information that could be used at trial, in violation of his rights, which Canada rejects.
“Initially, RCMP thought that (they) would be near the door to arrest (Meng),” Peck said, citing RCMP notes on his arrest. “And if that had happened, she would have been arrested at the gate … and given her Charter rights.”
Meng’s arrest plunged relations between Canada and China, leading days later to the arrest on suspicions of spying on two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, which Ottawa says was retaliation.
The extradition case is scheduled to conclude in April 2021.
str / amc / to
