This delay to ban Huawei has cost Canadian consumers. The national security and privacy rights of Canadians was put at risk without good reason. The Liberals were the only Five Eyes government since 2020 not to ban or restrict Huawei, bringing unnecessary friction with our information sharing allies. During this time, the domestic telecom market has also been severely impacted as they were left in the dark about the future of 5G in Canada.
New Democrats have been united over the past two years in calling for Huawei to be banned from Canada’s 5G network. The risks of not taking action on this important decision we’re clear, yet the Liberals chose to delay, and now Canadians have paid the cost. This government has said that ‘it wasn’t a race’ to make a quick decision but Canadians deserve a real explanation about why the decision to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks took so long."
Globe & Mail: Foreign interference a 'stain' on Canada's electoral process, Hogue inquiry concludes
NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who CSIS said has been targeted by Beijing, said Ottawa must do more to protect Chinese-Canadians from intimidation and disinformation practices during election campaigns.
Ms. Kwan said she hopes Justice Hogue will recommend that election monitoring be removed from the hands of senior civil servants who answer to the prime minister.
“The report noted there is an systemic failure of communications by the government to those who are targeted or impacted by foreign-interference actors,” she said. “I strongly believe what we need is one independent agency to be mandated as the lead to take on this work.”
She also said Justice Hogue needs to hold Mr. Trudeau and his top aides to account in the final report on how his government handled CSIS intelligence that warned about China state interference and disinformation efforts.