By Amanda Connolly
Conservative leader Rona Ambrose says the decision by the Liberal government to give a second chance to a Chinese company’s rejected bid to take over a Montreal tech firm is “dangerously naive.”
“The fact that the Trudeau Liberals are paving the way for foreign interests and foreign powers to take over Canadian companies shows they are just trying to curry favour with China,” Ambrose said in a speech Thursday from Quebec City, where the Conservatives held a caucus retreat.
“When Justin Trudeau holds cash-for-access fundraisers, surrounded by Chinese flags and influential communist officials, and then weeks later reopens national security reviews, Canadians rightly wonder, is our national security for sale?”
The deal in question concerns the acquisition of ITF Technologies of Montreal by O-Net Communications, which is based on Hong Kong but is viewed by national security officials as being under the control of the Chinese government.
Adding to the concerns is the fact that ITF Technologies has sold technology to the Department of National Defence and participated in research with CSIS, Canada’s spy agency.
Both CSIS and defence officials have raised serious concerns about the deal, noting that the risk cannot be mitigated and that allowing it to proceed would jeopardize military advantages held by Canada and its allies because of the type of military-grade laser technology produced by the firm.
“If the technology is transferred, China would be able to domestically-produce advanced-military laser technology to Western standards sooner than would otherwise be the case, which diminishes Canadian and allied military advantages,” says a 2015 national security assessment given to the Canadian cabinet in 2015 by security and defence officials and obtained by the Globe and Mail.
Ambrose said the Conservatives, who were in government when the deal was rejected the first time, will not let the deal float under the radar.
“We will be giving these issues the attention they need,” she said.
Adding to the concerns is the fact that ITF Technologies has sold technology to the Department of National Defence and participated in research with CSIS, Canada’s spy agency.
Both CSIS and defence officials have raised serious concerns about the deal, noting that the risk cannot be mitigated and that allowing it to proceed would jeopardize military advantages held by Canada and its allies because of the type of military-grade laser technology produced by the firm.
“If the technology is transferred, China would be able to domestically-produce advanced-military laser technology to Western standards sooner than would otherwise be the case, which diminishes Canadian and allied military advantages,” says a 2015 national security assessment given to the Canadian cabinet in 2015 by security and defence officials and obtained by the Globe and Mail.
Ambrose said the Conservatives, who were in government when the deal was rejected the first time, will not let the deal float under the radar.
“We will be giving these issues the attention they need,” she said.
“That’s what Canadians expect of their Conservative opposition.”
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