Federal and provincial Liberal governments have been handing Huawei millions in taxpayer dollars since 2010.
According to a report by the National Post, both the federal government and the Ontario government have given major handouts to the Chinese company.
In 2016, former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne gave Huawei a $16 million handout to conduct “5G research” in the province. In 2010, the company received $6.5 million from Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government in what was described as a strategic partnership.
No further commitments have been made since Wynne’s 2016 commitment according to a spokesperson for Ontario’s Economic Development Ministry.
The company has also benefited from numerous federal NSERC research grants involving partnerships between Huawei and academic researchers.
From 2016 to 2020 the government handed out $6.9 million to researchers and universities working to develop Huawei technology. A total of 43 grants were handed out during this period, and 23 of them involved research on 5G technology.
The Liberal government is expected to make a decision on whether it will allow Huawei to partake in Canada’s 5G network soon.
The company has admitted to pursuing a “diplomatically forceful” lobbying plan targeting specific federal ministers and MPs.
Among the Liberals named as potential lobbying targets by the company include Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne, and the President of the Privy Council Dominic LeBlanc.
As reported on by True North, Huawei most recently lobbied a cabinet official from the Privy Council Office and two MPs, Chandra Arya and Alexandra Mendes.
Members of both Canada’s intelligence community and the international intelligence community have warned the Trudeau government that accepting Huawei onto the network could potentially endanger the country’s national security and relationship with its information-sharing partners.
According to former national security adviser Richard Fadden, Huawei could use the technology to spy on Canadians.
“Huawei claims that it is a private company—similar to Apple or Google—and is being unfairly treated by the United States and its allies. But the reality remains that Huawei is a company beholden to higher laws that could—and most likely would—make it a tool for state-sponsored espionage,” said Fadden.
