Mendicino, RCMP will face committee over contracts to firm now tied to China – National | 24CA News

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is slated to testify earlier than a parliamentary committee on Monday about federal contracts awarded to a agency that has ties to the Chinese authorities — a revelation that got here amid elevated considerations about international interference final month.

Last month, studies emerged that Ontario-based Sinclair Technologies had been given 24 contracts since 2009, together with work for the Department of Defence, the RCMP and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Three of the 24 contracts have been awarded to the corporate since 2017, when Hytera Communications purchased Sinclair’s guardian firm.

The Chinese authorities owns about 10 per cent of Hytera by means of an funding fund, Radio-Canada first reported on Dec. 7. Hytera can be blacklisted by the United States Federal Communications Commission over nationwide safety considerations.

Yet in 2021, the corporate was granted a $549,637 RCMP contract for a radio frequency filtering system — one that’s legitimate till March 31, 2024.

Now Mendicino is poised to spend an hour going through questions from members of Parliament concerning the contracts. He will seem earlier than the House of Commons business committee alongside two senior RCMP officers at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Global News will carry the assembly reside right here.

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The news that federal civil servants granted an RCMP contract to an organization with ties to the Chinese authorities is “disconcerting,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed reporters in Montreal final month.

At the time, the prime minister and Mendicino additionally vowed to do an evaluation of the contract and its awarding course of.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre additionally added his voice to the refrain of concern, calling for the contract to be “banned and reversed” by the federal government as quickly as attainable.

The RCMP instructed Global News in a press release on the time that radio frequency filtration gear “poses no security concerns nor does it allow access to radio communications.”

Of the 24 contracts the corporate, which designs and manufactures communications gear, has been awarded since 2009, 12 of them had been awarded to the Department of Defence. Sinclair Technologies was awarded a complete of $252,296 between 2009 and 2013 to work on “antennas, waveguides and related equipment,” in keeping with procurement information.

A division official instructed Global News on the time that the defence contracts seemed to be primarily for antenna gadgets that amplify and obtain however don’t transmit data.

The different 12 contracts the corporate has been awarded since 2009 included work for the RCMP and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

A DND spokesperson instructed Global News final month that it’s “aware of the concerns” surrounding Sinclair Technologies.

“We are investigating these procurements and the way in which this equipment is used, alongside counterparts in other government departments,” they mentioned.

News of the contracts emerged on the heels of Global News reporting on allegations of Chinese interference and affect in Canada.

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A Spanish civil rights group, Safeguard Defenders, additionally revealed in a report final yr that there have been Chinese police operations around the globe, together with three in Toronto and no less than one in Vancouver.

The RCMP has since mentioned it’s investigating these studies and urged anybody with data to come back ahead.

The authorities has additionally upped its rhetoric in opposition to China in latest months. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly unveiled the nation’s Indo-Pacific technique in November, which labelled China an “increasingly disruptive global power.”

Earlier that very same month, Joly warned Canadians doing business in China to contemplate the “geopolitical risks” concerned with that alternative.

— with recordsdata from Global News’ Aaron D’Andrea

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