It's amazing what $1 million to Trudeau Foundation buys you

[Gone_Fishin]

Liberals waive security review for Chinese takeover of high-tech firm


STEVEN CHASE AND ROBERT FIFE
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 08, 2017 5:00AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Jun. 08, 2017 5:40AM EDT


The Trudeau government is allowing Chinese investors to buy a Vancouver high-tech firm without a formal national security review even though Canada and many of its allies use the company’s patented satellite communications technology for security, public safety and defence.

Hytera Communications of Shenzhen, China, is acquiring Vancouver-based Norsat International Inc., a company with military customers including the Pentagon that is also delivering a satellite communication system this year for the Canadian Coast Guard.

The government decided after a preliminary security screening that further examination of the deal was not necessary.

The government’s handling of this takeover – after Britain imposed strict conditions on a similar Hytera acquisition – and several other recent approvals of Chinese investment in sensitive sectors suggest the Trudeau Liberals are less risk-averse than their predecessors to capital from China as they prepare for bilateral free-trade talks with the world’s second-biggest economy.

In February, the Liberals approved the sale of a large B.C. chain of retirement homes to a Beijing-based insurance titan with a murky ownership structure, giving China a foothold in Canada’s health-care sector. In March, they approved a takeover of ITF Technologies Inc. in Montreal – which the Harper government had blocked on the grounds it would undermine a technological edge Western militaries have over China.

Customers Norsat lists on its website include the U.S. Department of Defence, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army, the Irish Department of Defence, the Taiwanese army, the aircraft manufacturing company Boeing and major journalism outfits including CBS News and Reuters.

A U.S. government official declined to comment on the takeover or whether the Trudeau Liberals consulted Washington.

Norsat says its technology is also used by NAV Canada, which operates the country’s civil air navigation service. In January, Norsat announced a big order to supply its Globetrekker portable satellite terminals to a “combat support agency” for the U.S. Department of Defence.

Richard Fadden, a former head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said in an interview that he would have recommended a full-fledged national-security review.

“On balance, and still without details, I would likely have suggested a review out of an abundance of caution,” Mr. Fadden said.

A formal security review would “reassure allies and tell the People’s Republic of China we are always vigilant, even if ultimately the transaction is okayed,” he said.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains defended the government’s approval, saying it was decided in the security screening analysis that an in-depth security review by CSIS and the Department of National Defence was not necessary.

“There are measures under the national-security review that we are unable to share with the public but … if after an initial review we feel we need to further investigate, we do that,” he told The Globe and Mail. “The point I am making is that we do not ignore any transaction.”

Hytera, the Chinese buyer of Norsat, drew international headlines in March when telecom equipment giant Motorola filed a high-profile lawsuit against it. The Chicago firm accuses the Chinese company, once a distributor of Motorola products in China, of a large-scale theft of its proprietary technology.

Asked for comment on the Hytera acquisition of Norsat, a Motorola spokeswoman referred The Globe to its lawsuit and patent infringement claims, which allege three former employees of Motorola gave 7,000 documents to the company. “Hytera took a shortcut to entering the market for competing digital radio products, by pilfering Motorola-developed technology and intellectual property,” Motorola said in a patent infringement complaint filed in a U.S. District Court in Illinois.

snip

University of British Columbia professor Michael Byers, who holds a chair in global politics and law, expressed astonishment that Ottawa did not do a formal review.

“I find this incomprehensible because it is so clearly involves cutting-edge technology as well as Canada’s most important security alliance,” Prof. Byers said. “We have a Canadian company that is building satellite receivers for essentially the most advanced satellite system operated by NATO and the Chinese takeover of that company is not being subject to a national-security review.”

He said a broader question is: “Do we want small and medium-sized Canadian companies that are engaged in cutting-edge telecommunications research and development to be snapped up by foreign companies that are essentially hollowing out Canada’s aerospace and military industries by doing this?”

When Hytera made a bid for Sepura, a mobile digital radio equipment maker in Cambridge earlier this year, Britain – which has intervened in foreign takeovers on national security grounds only seven times in the past 15 years – imposed strict stipulations on its conduct after the acquisition to safeguard national security.

Canada has imposed no constraints, or undertakings, on the Hytera-Norsat deal.

Hytera is majority owned by Chinese billionaire Chen Qingzhou, but a Chinese sovereign wealth fund that Beijing owns, the National Social Security Fund, has more than 2 per cent.


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/po ... sf_globefb

[Gone_Fishin]

After Question Period today we learned that, despite answers provided by Justin Trudeau's government, a National Security Review has not been completed about the Chinese takeover of this high tech Canadian company.

https://www.facebook.com/CandiceBergenM ... 261362478/

Why are the Trudeau Liberals lying about this? Why are they saying a review took place when it didn't?

[Rwede]

Trudeau and his crew aren't very smart.

It's evident by their constantly getting caught lying and contradicting themselves. Butts is writing their script, but the fools keep forgetting what BS they peddled yesterday, so they make up new BS, and it comes back to bite them in the *bleep*.

[OldIslander]

When I read this article this morning -- the headline suggested that the US was unhappy about this. The first thing I wondered is if this is Canada's reaction to Trump essentially ignoring the terms of our free trade agreement? Trudeau might be telling Trump that the US can't expect Canada to care one way or another about what they think about Canadian business affairs, when they threaten to abandon the agreement and are screwing Canada with new lumber tariffs and threats of others.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/po ... e35294914/

It was probably a bad idea for Canada to permit this sale to proceed -- you can't 'unring' the bell....

[Rwede]

Trudeau's pandering to the Chinese for their massive donations to his family will likely cost many jobs at Norsat, as the US won't take the risk of having the Chinese provide military systems to them.

But, since Norsat is a BC-based firm, I can see Trudeau not giving a rat's *bleep* about the loss of jobs. We aren't Quebec or Ontario, after all.

You know it's bad when a US Democrat is peed off at Trudeau for this. Can't even blame that one on Trump, lefties.



The Trudeau government’s decision to greenlight a Chinese takeover of a Canadian high-tech firm that sells satellite-communication systems to the American military jeopardizes U.S. national security, a congressional commission warned Monday and urged the Pentagon to “immediately review” its dealings with Vancouver-based Norsat International.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission told The Globe and Mail that the Liberals appear to be willing to sacrifice national-security interests of its most important ally in exchange for obtaining a bilateral free-trade deal with China.

“Canada’s approval of the sale of Norsat to a Chinese entity raises significant national-security concerns for the United States as the company is a supplier to our military,” Commissioner Michael Wessel said.

“Canada may be willing to jeopardize its own security interests to gain favour with China,” said Mr. Wessel, adding it shouldn’t put the security of a close ally at risk in the process.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/po ... e35294914/

[maryjane48]

*removed*