Border agency using radio equipment from Chinese company banned in the United States | 24CA News

For the previous 5 and a half years, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been utilizing communications gear and know-how from the controversial Chinese agency Hytera Communications — an organization the United States authorities has blacklisted as a nationwide safety menace.

In response to CBC’s questions about CBSA’s use of Hytera gear and know-how, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino mentioned he is requested all departments throughout his portfolio to evaluate any procurement contracts linked to Hytera or its subsidiaries within the wake of an issue over an identical RCMP contract with one in every 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 mentioned Monday.

“That will apply right across all departments, including the CBSA.”

CBC News/Radio-Canada has realized that on the Fort Erie Peace Bridge in Niagara, CBSA officers are geared up with radios made by Hytera, a telecommunications firm primarily based in Shenzen, China. China’s authorities owns about 10 per cent of Hytera via an funding fund.

Hytera merchandise are banned on the market and import within the United States. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blacklisted the corporate 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 proprietor of Ontario-based Sinclair Technologies. The federal authorities confronted some pointed nationwide safety questions earlier this month when Radio-Canada reported on a contract between Sinclair and the RCMP to produce Mounties with radio frequency (RF) filtering gear.

The RCMP has since suspended the contract and the Mounties say they’re reviewing the RF gear they’ve put in.

In February 2017, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) awarded a contract price just below $3 million to Canquest Communications of Chatham, Ont. to offer digital cellular radios and radio communication infrastructure for CBSA within the Niagara Region, which incorporates 4 factors of entry.

A spokesperson for Procurement and Public Services Canada mentioned the contract with Canquest didn’t embrace any safety necessities.

Canquest labored with Hytera Canada to construct the radio communications infrastructure and bought Hytera radio gear to CBSA.

“Hytera’s Tier III Pro design architecture is well suited for wide area public safety service,” says a 2017 Hytera news launch on the contract.

Canquest’s CEO John Smith advised the Chatham Voice group newspaper in 2017 that Hytera’s know-how “gave [Canquest] the edge” in profitable the bid.

“Hytera is a progressive company,” Smith mentioned within the article. “They provide the Chinese police force with radios. This is incredibly flexible technology.”

Three of the Niagara ports of entry are not utilizing Hytera gear, however the Peace Bridge port of entry nonetheless is and will not transition to new radio gear and a brand new community till March 2023.

Responding to questions from CBC/Radio-Canada, CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy mentioned the Peace Bridge border crossing hasn’t switched due to technical points that emerged throughout testing of the brand new radio community and gear.

She mentioned CBSA did its personal safety evaluation of the Hytera gear and know-how.

“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 mentioned in an e mail assertion.

“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 didn’t present solutions to CBC/Radio-Canada’s follow-up questions on the character of that safety evaluation by the point this story was revealed.

Smith referred CBC/Radio Canada to CBSA for remark. Hytera Canada has not responded to CBC/Radio-Canada’s request for remark.

Shortly after CBC/Radio-Canada despatched inquiries to CBSA, Alexander Cohen, Mendicino’s press secretary, despatched an e mail assertion.

“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 mentioned within the assertion.

A spokesperson for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s indicators intelligence company, mentioned CSE was by no means requested to do a safety evaluate of the gear or contract.

Hytera is going through 21 espionage-related fees within the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice has accused the corporate of conspiring to steal know-how from the American telecommunications agency Motorola.

Public contracts with Chinese firm below scrutiny

Controversy over Hytera’s position in Canada’s safety infrastructure comes at a time of heightened tensions between Canada and China. The federal authorities’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, launched earlier this yr, requires a extra aggressive Canadian overseas coverage towards Beijing. China’s authorities has condemned the technique.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly mentioned earlier this month that the RCMP’s contract with Sinclair is inconsistent with the federal government’s method to China outlined within the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

The House of Commons standing committee on trade and know-how just lately referred to as Mendicino to seem earlier than the committee to reply questions in regards to the RCMP contract with Sinclair.

The committee can also be seeking to query François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of innovation, science and trade, about why Hytera was capable of buy Norsat International — Sinclair’s guardian firm — in 2017 and not using a authorities nationwide safety evaluate of the transaction.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to criticism of the RCMP’s Sinclair contract by saying the civil service was chargeable for it and pledging adjustments 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 mentioned 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 authorities banned the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei from Canada’s 5G infrastructure earlier this yr. Huawei is among the many Chinese corporations the FCC has blacklisted.