For the past five and a half years, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been using communications equipment and technology from the controversial Chinese firm Hytera Communications — a company the United States government has banned as a national security threat.
In response to CBC’s questions about CBSA’s use of Hytera equipment and technology, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he’s asked all departments across his portfolio to review any procurement contracts linked to Hytera or its subsidiaries in the wake of a controversy over a similar RCMP contract with one of Hytera’s subsidiaries.
“I have instructed my department to do a portfolio-wide scan and review of any other potential similar contracts which may have been awarded, so that we can take whatever steps are necessary to mitigate any against any risks that may exist,” Mendicino said Monday.
“That will apply right across all departments, including the CBSA.”
CBC News/Radio-Canada has learned that at the Fort Erie Peace Bridge in Niagara Region, CBSA officers are equipped with radios made by Hytera, a telecommunications company based in Shenzhen, China. China’s government owns about 10 per cent of Hytera through an investment fund.
Hytera products are banned for sale and import in the United States. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blacklisted the company for posing “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.”
Hytera is the owner of Ontario-based Sinclair Technologies. The federal government faced some pointed national security questions earlier this month when Radio-Canada reported on a contract between Sinclair and the RCMP to supply Mounties with radio frequency (RF) filtering equipment.
In February 2017, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) awarded a contract worth just under $3 million to Canquest Communications of Chatham, Ont., to provide digital mobile radios and radio communication infrastructure for CBSA in the Niagara Region, which includes four points of entry.
A spokesperson for Procurement and Public Services Canada said the contract with Canquest did not include any security requirements.
Canquest worked with Hytera Canada to build the radio communications infrastructure and sold Hytera radio equipment to CBSA.
“Hytera’s Tier III Pro design architecture is well suited for wide area public safety service,” says a 2017 Hytera news release on the contract.
Canquest’s CEO John Smith told the Chatham Voice community newspaper in 2017 that Hytera’s technology “gave [Canquest] the edge” in winning the bid.
“Hytera is a progressive company,” Smith said in the article. “They provide the Chinese police force with radios. This is incredibly flexible technology.”
Three of the Niagara ports of entry are no longer using Hytera equipment, but the Peace Bridge port of entry still is and won’t transition to new radio equipment and a new network until March 2023.
The CBSA border crossing at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie. Border agents at the Peace Bridge will continue to use Hytera equipment until at least March 2023 after CBSA extended a procurement contract. (Greg Bruce/CBC)
Responding to questions from CBC/Radio-Canada, CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said the Peace Bridge border crossing hasn’t switched because of technical issues that emerged during testing of the new radio network and equipment.
She said CBSA did its own security assessment of the Hytera equipment and technology.
“At the time the contract was put in place in 2017, CBSA was aware that Canquest, a Canadian company, was a reseller of Hytera equipment,” she said in an email statement.
“CBSA takes communications security seriously and has formal processes in place to assess communications security and mitigate risk. To date, these formal processes have not identified any risks to be mitigated for the Peace Bridge facility.”
CBSA did not provide answers to CBC/Radio-Canada’s follow-up questions on the nature of that security assessment by the time this story was published.
Smith referred CBC/Radio Canada to CBSA for comment. Hytera Canada has not responded to CBC/Radio-Canada’s request for comment.
Shortly after CBC/Radio-Canada sent questions to CBSA, Alexander Cohen, Mendicino’s press secretary, sent an email statement.
“We can confirm that the Canada Border Services Agency’s contract with Canquest Communications will expire in the near future, and that the Agency will replace its equipment with technology from another vendor,” Cohen said in the statement.
A spokesperson for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s signals intelligence agency, said CSE was never asked to do a security review of the equipment or contract.
Hytera is facing 21 espionage-related charges in the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice has accused the company of conspiring to steal technology from the American telecommunications firm Motorola.
Public contracts with Chinese company under scrutiny
Controversy over Hytera’s role in Canada’s security infrastructure comes at a time of heightened tensions between Canada and China. The federal government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, released earlier this year, calls for a more aggressive Canadian foreign policy toward Beijing. China’s government has condemned the strategy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said earlier this month that the RCMP’s contract with Sinclair is inconsistent with the government’s approach to China outlined in the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
The House of Commons standing committee on industry and technology recently called Mendicino to appear before the committee to answer questions about the RCMP contract with Sinclair.
The committee is also looking to question François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of innovation, science and industry.
Some committee members expressed interest in asking Champagne about why Hytera was able to purchase Norsat International — Sinclair’s parent company — in 2017 without a government national security review of the transaction.
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino hold a press conference in Ottawa on May 19, 2022. A House of Commons committee is looking to question both ministers about the effect of Chinese technology and equipment on Canada’s national security. (David Kawai/The Canadian Press)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to criticism of the RCMP’s Sinclair contract by saying the civil service was responsible for it and pledging changes to public procurement.
“Absolutely, we’re going to be finding out first of all what needs to be done to ensure that our communications technology is secure, but also make sure we’re figuring out how this could continue to happen and make sure that Canada is not signing contracts with the lowest bidder that then turn around and leave us exposed to security flaws,” Trudeau said earlier this month.
“We will have some real questions for the independent public service that signed these contracts, and we’ll make sure that this is changed going forward. It’s high time that happens.”
The federal government banned the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from Canada’s 5G infrastructure earlier this year. Huawei is among the Chinese companies the FCC has banned.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
