Sinclair Technologies was awarded a CA$500,000,000 contract for a land radio communications system for the Canadian Federal Police in October 2021 after winning a Canadian government tender.

The Ontario-based company has been controlled by the Chinese company Hytera Communications since 2017. And it turns out that the Chinese state owns about 10% of Hytera through a mutual fund.

As part of the process initiated by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the lowest bidder would be able to RCMP equipment to meet the need for new RF filters. This technology is designed to ensure that none other than members of the RCMP cannot overhear the conversations taking place on its mobile terrestrial radio systems.

Radio-Canada also revealed Thursday morning that the federal government had failed to use the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to assess the risks that new equipment acquired by the RCMP and intended for its land mobile radio system.

On the US blacklist

In doing so, Ottawa has also ignored many warning signals sent to it several months earlier to prevent and mitigate the dangers associated with these types of alerts.

Almost two years ago, US authorities considered the Hytera Group an unacceptable risk to national security or the safety of American individuals.

The Hytera name appeared on a Washington blacklist and the company faces 21 charges in a major espionage case. According to the US Department of Justice, the Chinese company conspired to steal trade secrets from Motorola.

The RCMP has confirmed to Radio-Canada that initial installation work has taken place without specifying the number of these new devices operating on its network. However, it does not consider this to be a current or future security issue.

For now, Minister Mendicino has merely announced that the RCMP suspended the contract with Sinclair Technologies without providing any information on the work already underway.

What I said in my Indo-Pacific strategy is that we had to make sure we had a national security perspective in everything we did, especially when it came to contracts and procurement.reacted Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.

” This contract should therefore never have been signed by the civil service. Point. »

“It is extremely worrying,” the opposition said

It’s extremely worryingintroduced La Prairie Bloc member Alain Therrien during Question Time in the House of Commons. We know the contract has just been cancelled, but the government has nevertheless given a Chinese government company access to the RCMP’s secret frequencies. […] No one felt the need to carry out security checks. How can the Prime Minister explain this to us?

We are very concerned about this situationreplied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. That is why we have asked ministers and officials to follow up on two elements: first, what we should be doing to ensure the integrity and security of our telecoms now, but also how we can improve the system to ensure there is no such problem gives in the future.

The case is recovering in the parliamentary committee

The RCMP’s contract with Sinclair was also discussed at a session of the House of Commons’ National Defense Committee, where the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, Jody Thomas, appeared to be testifying on Arctic security.

We’re investigating what happened to that contract,” Thomas said. We create the task for the review that we carry out. I’m still collecting information from the responsible ministries.

China repeatedly came to the table during the parliamentary committee meeting. Thomas said in particular that Beijing’s ambitions in the Arctic are based on its desire to secure shorter sea routes to Europe and to exploit the region’s vast reserves of natural resources.

[Les autorités chinoises] “Have voracious appetites for hydrocarbons, rare earth minerals and fish,” she explained. You see They see [l’Arctique] as an essential part of their sustainability as a nation. We must therefore ensure that the rich resources of the Canadian Arctic are protected.

With information from Marc Godbout, Louis Blouin and The Canadian Press