Chinese justice seeps into Canada

This story in yesterday's Post by Kevin Libin, about the Chinese consulate in Calgary forcibly holding a Tibetan protester for nearly an hour, is growing into a international incident. RCMP are now investigating the conduct of the consulate staff. Kevin will be on Rob Breakenridge's radio show imminently to discuss it.

I believe in property rights, and I believe that trespass is a tort, and can even be a crime. I also believe in diplomatic immunity, even for diplomats from cruel regimes like Communist China. But if a Tibetan youth did break the law in Canada, it's for Canadian police and prosecutors to deal with -- not some brutish Chinese apparatchik, who thinks he's still back in Tiananmen Square, meting out Chinese-style "justice".

I understand that the youth in question doesn't want to make a fuss, out of fear for his family back home. Fair enough, but too bad -- I think he'd have a helluva case against the consulate for false imprisonment, assault and battery. If the staff who bullied him were locally-hired, he might be able to proceed against them. If they were Chinese nationals, they'd likely be exempt, and I doubt the case could proceed against the government of China itself. But even filing such a doomed lawsuit would be a well-deserved black eye for the world's biggest bully.

P.S. I love this suggestion aired by the National Review's John Derbyshire. I know it would never happen; but if Taiwan did declare independence on the first day of the Beijing Olympics, what would China do?

UPDATE: Kevin did a good thought experiment on the radio: what would be the media reaction if it were the U.S. consulate that seized an anti-U.S. protester and handcuffed and held him in their office for an hour before releasing him to Calgary police?