Christopher Nardi , Anja Karadeglija - Yesterday
National Post
OTTAWA — The Canadian government will ban equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from both the country’s 5G and 4G wireless networks, following a review that took three years to complete.
© Provided by National PostCanada to ban Huawei from country's 5G, 4G networks, in line with Five Eyes allies
“Telecommunication companies in Canada will not be permitted to include in their networks products or services that put our national security at risk,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters Thursday.
“Providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it.”
With the move, Canada falls in line with its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence network — the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. — who have all already banned or restricted Huawei equipment from their 5G networks.
The Liberals have been promising a decision on a Huawei ban for three years. Asked about why it took so long, Champagne said “this has never been a race. This is about making the right decision.”
Over that time, Canada’s large telecoms have been moving on building stand-alone 5G networks using equipment from other vendors, meaning the Huawei and ZTE ban is largely irrelevant to those networks. So-called non-standalone 5G networks are integrated with older 4G networks.
Both Bell and Telus will have to remove existing Huawei equipment from those older networks. Telus warned the government back in 2019 that “a full ban on Huawei for 5G will force operators to replace their existing 4G Huawei equipment — an expensive and complex proposition over an elongated timeframe.”
Innovation Canada said in a policy statement that telecom companies will have to remove 5G equipment and managed services from Huawei and ZTE by June 28, 2024, and “any existing 4G equipment and managed services must be removed or terminated by December 31, 2027.”
Canada bans Huawei from its 5G network
Champagne said Thursday the government would not be financially compensating telecoms. The National Post previously reported both Bell and Telus approached the government about the possibility of being compensated by taxpayers for the cost of removing equipment.
On top of older, previously-sold equipment, Huawei has sold slightly more than $700 million worth of equipment to telecom operators in Canada since 2018, mostly to Bell and Telus.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a China expert and senior fellow with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, said that two and five years to remove all the Huawei equipment is just too long.
Though she said she is “fully in favour” of the Liberals’ announcement Thursday, she said she’d hoped the government would go as far as the U.S. and outright ban all of the company’s products, such as consumer items like cellphones.
“There are other elements of what the company provides that can also be a problem,” she said.
The Huawei and ZTE ban stems from the fear that having Huawei equipment in Canada’s next-generation wireless networks is a security risk, especially considering China’s laws that state companies must cooperate with its intelligence services.
Innovation Canada said in its policy statement that the Canadian government is seriously concerned the two companies “could be compelled to comply with extrajudicial directions from foreign governments in ways that would conflict with Canadian laws or would be detrimental to Canadian interests.”
Asked what threat Huawei poses to Canada, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the “examination that was conducted over the last period of time, it was thorough, it was meticulous, it was on the strength of the advice that we get from our national security partners.”
The government will also soon introduce legislative framework for protecting critical infrastructure in the finance, energy, telecom and transport sectors, Mendicino said. Critical infrastructure has become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks over the past decade as it’s been increasingly connected to the internet.
In separate statements, the opposition Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois all essentially said: it’s about time.
“The Liberal government’s lack of action on this decision has been an international embarrassment,” Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said. “In the years of delay, Canadian telecommunications companies purchased hundreds of millions of dollars of Huawei equipment which will now need to be removed from their networks at enormous expense.”
The NDP’s Brian Masse said the decision was “long overdue” and ultimately may have hurt Canada’s reputation in its intelligence allies’ eyes.
“It has taken the Liberal government three years to make this decision while the other Five Eyes countries made their positions known much sooner. This delay only worked to raise serious questions at home and among our allies about the Liberal government’s national security commitments and hampered the domestic telecommunications market.
The Bloc Québécois said it welcomed the “tardy” decision, and insisted that no government money would be spent compensating telecom giants who already have Huawei technology in their systems.
U.S. State Department cheers Canada's long-awaited ban on 5G gear from China's Huawei
The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department says it welcomes Canada's decision to ban China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE from its next-generation mobile networks.
Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne revealed the long-awaited decision Thursday, a move critics say was long overdue.
In a statement, the U.S. says it supports efforts around the world to ensure consumers and customers can trust their wireless networks and providers.
It says it will continue to collaborate with Canada and other allies to ensure shared security in the 5G era.
The U.S. first began restricting domestic firms from doing business with Huawei back in 2019, and has been waiting for Canada to follow suit ever since.
During his confirmation hearing in September, U.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen suggested Washington was growing impatient with the delay.
"We welcome Canada's decision," the State Department said in writing Friday in response to a query from The Canadian Press.
"The United States supports efforts to ensure countries, companies, and citizens can trust their wireless networks and their operators. We continue to collaborate with allies like Canada to ensure our shared security in a 5G future and beyond."
That anodyne comment stands in contrast to what Cohen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year before he was confirmed as President Joe Biden's envoy to Canada.
"We are all waiting for Canada to release its framework for its overall China policy," Cohen said, describing the autocratic regime's ambitions as an "existential threat'' to the U.S.
He also promised to take part in discussions to "make sure that Canada's policies reflect its words in terms of the treatment of China."
At the time, Canada was walking a tightrope with China, having arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant while working to free two Canadian citizens detained in retaliation by the regime.
Just days later, however, Wanzhou was released after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement in her case. The two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were freed by China hours later.
Earlier this week, Ottawa also announced the end of another irritant that was believed to be a symptom of the Huawei tensions: a three-year Chinese ban on imports of Canadian canola.
In March 2019, a few months after Wanzhou's arrest, China blocked canola from two Canadian companies, ostensibly after pests were detected in shipments from Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022.
SEE
HUWAEI HACKED NORTEL IN THE NINTIES, THEN IN THE TWO THOUSANDS WHEN NORTEL WENT BROKE THEY BOUGHT UP ITS TELECOM PATENTS
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