Tory MP Raquel Dancho. (NTDTV Screen Shoot).
By Limin Zhou
The Conservative opposition says that the Liberal government’s decision to ban Huawei was three years overdue, which negatively impacted Canada’s international reputation.
“The Liberal government has been promising a decision for well over three years. It is three years too late,” said conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho in an interview with New Tang Dynasty TV.
“It significantly damaged Canada’s international reputation with our allies to be a reliable partner and moving in lockstep with them to show united front against the bully that is China,” said Dancho.
“We welcome the decision,” said Dancho, “but it should have been done much sooner.”
After spent years weighing the issue, the liberal government announced on May 19th that Canada intends to ban Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE from its 5G wireless infrastructure.
“There are many hostile actors who are ready to exploit vulnerabilities in our defences. We must redouble our efforts,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on May 19.
“That’s why our government conducted an extensive and thorough security examination of 5G wireless telecommunications technologies, including those service providers who represent a high risk to the integrity of our telecommunications sector.”
Dancho said that the Americans are much more blatant about the security threat that the Huawei poses to the 5G network. The Americans “very much feel that it is a threat in terms of spying, espionage, so they’re much more blunt than the Liberal government is.”
The long-awaited decision will align Canada with its Five Eyes intelligence partners, which have banned Huawei or announced a phasing-out of its equipment already used by domestic wireless carriers. The alliance includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“Given the three years there has been significant investment made by Huawei in Canada’s 5G network. …… Huawei has got their tentacles into Canada’s 5G network,” said Dancho.
“Had this decision been made earlier we will be having a different conversation but because it took so long it’ll be that much more difficult to sort of untangle the Huawei technology from our network,” said Dancho.