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The amendments to the Telecommunications Act promised on Thursday will be introduced into legislation “in the very short term,” Champagne said. We will see
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May 20, 2022 • 12 hours ago • 5 minutes reading • 97 comments Minister of Innovation François-Philippe Champagne Photo by GINTS IVUSKANS / AFP via Getty Images
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Among the many detours and outspoken unanswered clear questions about what the federal government announced on Thursday about the restrictions Canada may impose on China’s multinational telecommunications giants’ ability to hack, spy on and ransom Canada’s critical telecommunications infrastructure. it is not It is not easy to choose one that stands out in its absurdity. That’s because there were so many of them.
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It was not just the way Public Security Secretary Marco Mendicino chose to be deliberately stupid, but to directly answer why telecommunications companies in Canada should be expected to give up equipment acquired by Huawei Technologies and ZTE in pending legislation, which will turn out to be what Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne called a new, “holistic” framework for telecommunications security, which is in the works.
Canadian intelligence agencies have been clear for years that threats to national security that Huawei would pose to Canada in 5G (fifth generation) technology include intellectual property theft, communications tapping and sabotage of infrastructure led by the Chinese Communist Party regime. in Beijing. The CCP requires all its companies to cooperate with Beijing in espionage operations. God help you if you don’t.
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It wasn’t just Champagne’s stubborn refusal to answer simple questions about why it took three long years for Canada to reach the same decision made centuries ago by Canada’s intelligence-sharing partners Five Eyes, the United States. United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Ottawa’s inexplicable reluctance has threatened to severely restrict what intelligence agencies from those other countries want to share with Canada.
At least there is a solution, although it does not seem to apply to Huawei or ZTE mobile phones. Last September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Huawei’s long-term decision would be announced “in a matter of weeks” and we are finally here. The amendments to the Telecommunications Act promised on Thursday will be introduced into legislation “in the very short term,” Champagne said. We will see.
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However, everything is very promising, if true. It seems that the terrible warnings about Huawei that US intelligence agencies passed directly to Ottawa 12 years ago during the White House of Barack Obama will finally be taken seriously by Canada and given strength and effect, according to the chart. of Champagne, from 2027
Meanwhile, we have all been waiting for the Trudeau government’s new “framework” for Chinese policy or the results of the promised “reset of Chinese policy” for more than three years. This strange delay may be due to the long efforts of Trudeau and his ministers to avoid saying anything or doing something that will upset Chinese Supreme Leader Xi Jinping.
Two years ago, for example, when he was foreign minister, Champagne offered a huge thank you to Beijing for providing Canada with COVID-related medical supplies, but when Taiwan donated 500,000 masks to Canada, Champagne was silent. This was widely noted, and despite public outcry, Champagne continued to refuse to say Taiwan’s name aloud. This went on until he became so uncomfortable that Trudeau was forced to instruct Champagne to do so.
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During the long kidnappings of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and the extradition process of Huawei CFO Meng Wangzhou in Vancouver, it was common to mistaken tragicomic diplomatic opposition as the real reason for the Trudeau government’s bizarre quietism over the national issue. security threats in canada. But the theory is valid only if you ignore the way Ottawa behaved toward China long before the two Michael abductions, and the way Ottawa behaved after their release last year.
Nothing has changed since this week. Mendicino and Champagne diligently pursued politics on Thursday. In a statement of 1,191 words and a political statement issued by Champagne, China is not mentioned even once. This required a fantastic play on words: “The Government of Canada has serious concerns about suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE that could be forced to comply with out-of-court instructions from foreign governments in ways that would be contrary to Canadian law or detrimental. for Canadian interests.
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God, I wonder which “foreign governments” are targeting Huawei and ZTE?
Despite all this, the prize for absurdity on the issue of Huawei and national security this week should go to the candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party Jean Charest, who responded to the decision to “ban” Huawei / ZTE in this way on Twitter: “While I I recommend the Government of Canada finally made the right decision to ban Huawei from our 5G networks, it took them too long.
Jean Charest’s own work is one of the main reasons it took so long. Charest pretends to be the opposite, claiming that the work he did on behalf of Huawei before his leadership had something to do with the “release of the two Michaels”, when in fact Charest’s services to Huawei were directly helpful. of blocking and delaying the ban itself, which Champagne and Mendicino finally announced on Thursday. That’s what Huawei hired Charest to do, and that’s what he did.
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In several evasive answers to questions about what he had been doing with Huawei all this time before deciding to apply for the job vacated by Erin O’Toole in February, Charest managed to get away with refusing to reveal it, for for nearly three years, for $ 70,000 a month, Charest runs a small team at McCarthy Tétrault, a law firm that provides services to at least 20 Chinese corporate giants and organizations directly owned and controlled by the Beijing regime. And what Charest was doing for Huawei was advising, advising and otherwise directly managing Huawei’s efforts to avoid and pave the way for national security barriers patrolled by the Communications Security Establishment and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, as well as in the core of Canada’s 5G digital channel – deploying connectivity.
Charest also did a good job. So good that his accomplishments explain, at least in part, the international turmoil of the Trudeau government’s political and bureaucratic paralysis of the 5G file all this time.
As of Thursday, we are expected to believe that the paralysis is behind us, that a decision has been made and that Huawei and ZTE will be kept out of Canada’s 5G core.
We will see.
National Post
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Matt Gurney: Huawei’s delay in Canada is a symbol of a deeper problem
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