Open letter to PM Trudeau asks for independent thought on Huawei | Hill Times

From the Hill Times: https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/12/15/open-letter-to-pm-trudeau-asks-for-independent-thought-on-huawei/334133

OPINION

Open letter to PM Trudeau asks for independent thought on Huawei

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,

Fifty years ago, your father made the decision to recognize the People’s Republic of China. In so doing, he made it clear that this country did not have to kowtow to the United States, that Canada was an independent country.

You now have a similar decision in regard to Huawei and whether or not it should be banned from participation in Canadian high-speed communications networks.

Before you make this decision, please consider the following:

  • There is little credible evidence that Huawei poses a serious security threat to Canada at present. Yet we know that U.S. spy agencies illegally hacked Huawei’s headquarters nearly a decade ago.

  • Canada is directly involved as a member of the Five Eyes, a network that is composed exclusively of Anglo-settler colonial states (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia). The Maori foreign minister of New Zealand has warned the Five Eyes about meddling in foreign policy, particularly in regard to its campaign against China.

  • The information you are receiving from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) may well be biased. Former government security analyst Alan Barnes has revealed how CSIS by default tends to support U.S. spying reports, regardless of their credibility.

  • As reported by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian government has had to pay out $50-million to settle legal cases brought against the government by Maher Arar, Omar Khadr, Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin, and Ahmad El Maati because of CSIS or RCMP misinformation that led to their mistreatment.

  • Former CSIS agent Huda Mukbil and others have demonstrated that CSIS is rife with institutional racism and there is reason to believe that Sinophobia, as well as Islamophobia, are infecting current government policies.

  • CSIS spying on Indigenous and environmental groups opposed to the construction of pipelines illustrates how CSIS is a divisive force precisely when a global common front, including China, is essential to meet the existential threat of the climate emergency.

Given the evidence, is it not time for the government to reassess its position through a full review of foreign policy, including its ties with China and the United States?

If, in the meantime, the government, in its wisdom, should decide to ban Huawei from high-speed telecommunications systems, I ask that it also prohibit any further ties with the Five Eyes to ensure that all Canadians, and Indigenous people in Canada, are protected from hacking and cybercrimes perpetrated by the Anglo-alliance of settler colonialism.

John Price
Professor emeritus, University of Victoria
Victoria, B.C.

 

John Price