Chinese surveillance camera maker Hikvision is seeking a judicial review of the federal government’s recent order requiring the company to cease operations and shut down its business in Canada over national security concerns.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly
announced the decision on June 27, saying Ottawa had determined Hikvision’s continued operations would be “injurious” to Canada’s national security.
Hikvision has filed a notice of application with the attorney general of Canada, asking for a judicial review of the federal order requiring the company to shut down its operations in Canada, the company said in a July 7
statement.
“Hikvision Canada did so to vigorously challenge the Order and to uphold what we believe is right,” the company said. “Through Canada’s legal system, we expect a fair process.”
In its July 7 statement, Hikvision said it would continue to defend its position that its products and technology “have not endangered the national security of Canada or any other country in which we operate.”
“We expect the legitimate rights and interests of all investors and businesses operating in the country to be fully respected and protected by its judicial system,” the company said. “At Hikvision, we remain fully committed to the Canadian market and to our Canadian stakeholders.”
The company is asking the court to stay Ottawa’s order until the court decides on the judicial review. It said it reached an agreement with the attorney general to resume normal operations until the court decides whether to stay Ottawa’s order.
Joly said the decision stemmed from a national security review based on evidence from Canada’s security and intelligence community, adding that the company’s products would be banned from government departments, agencies, and Crown corporations.
Hikvision has faced sanctions in the United States, the U.K., and Australia over its connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
The company is partly owned by the Chinese regime, with its latest annual
report listing the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC)—a Chinese state-owned military industrial group—as the company’s “actual controller.”
The CETC has an “explicit role” in developing technology for China’s People’s Liberation Army,
according to Washington-based defence policy think tank the Jamestown Foundation. Meanwhile, a subsidiary of CETC is Hikvision’s largest shareholder.
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The United States has
sanctioned Hikvision over its alleged involvement in human rights abuses in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities face state-led oppression, including through re-education camps, forced
labour, forced
sterilizations, political
indoctrination, and electric
shocks, according to survivors.
Hikvision’s alleged role in providing the Chinese regime with surveillance equipment to monitor Uyghurs resulted in companies such Home Depot pulling Hikvision products from its shelves,
according to a 2021 report by the U.S.-based tech outlet TechCrunch.
Hikvision has also allegedly provided equipment for the Chinese regime to surveil prisoners, as
reported by Pennsylvania-based video surveillance information company IPVM, creating devices that can be incorporated into torture devices.
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The United States has flagged Hikvision as being owned or controlled by the Chinese military—an allegation the company has
denied—and later placed a ban on equipment authorization for that company after determining it poses “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security or the security and safety of U.S. persons.”
The
U.K. and
Australia took steps in recent years to remove Hikvision and other Chinese-made cameras from government sites, citing privacy and security concerns.
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