Former Canadian PM Stephen Harper linked to the sale of Israeli surveillance technology to the UAE
Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper headed the advisory committee of a Toronto-based company which is now looking to facilitate the sale of surveillance technology to the UAE.
Harper has done major investment in Canadian AWZ Ventures that finances Israeli surveillance technology systems, including facial recognition and crowd detection systems and services that deliver comprehensive information on individuals in real time.
He also served as a president of its advisory committee comprising formers members of Mossad and other Israeli and American intelligence agencies, among others and also a business partner with the firm, which has investments in 18 Israeli cybersecurity companies, according to its website.
AWZ Ventures is in the process of incorporating a subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Former Canadian diplomat Katherine Verrier-Fréchette has been hired as managing director of this subsidiary, AWZ Horizons, which will be based in Abu Dhabi, UAE’s capital.
Katherine has given a responsibility to facilitate the sale of cybersecurity technologies to other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, and North Africa.
The commercial relationship between AWZ Ventures and the UAE is being established at the time of Abraham Accords — peace treaties signed between Israel, the UAE and other Arab countries.
It’s noteworthy how Israeli technology has been setting its footprints in different parts of the world and expanding its market, unaffected by geo-political tangents. In last few years, Israeli technology has been in limelight for providing cross border cyber espionage technology.
For instance, Quadream has sold cyber-espionage tech services to Saudi Arabia in order to hack smartphones of dissidents and opponents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Qatar hired Israeli based cybersecurity firm “Sdema Group” for providing security at the 2022 World Cup soccer championship.NSO Group’s iPhone Zero-Days used against a UAE Human Rights Defender Ahmed Mansoor. Israeli made spying tools were used by Bangladesh intelligence service to target their own dissidents.
Botswana police use Israeli Cellebrite tech to search another journalist’s phone.Spain’s Excem Technologies appears to be an outpost for Israeli cybersecurity developers. Israeli shell companies like Q Cyber Technologies in Israel, OSY Techno-logies in Luxembourg, and by the name of Westbridge in North America were spread across the world.
There have been criticisms over this sale by few prominent figures. For instance-according to Siena Anstis, senior legal adviser to Citizen Lab “The sale of cyber surveillance technologies to a country like the UAE is inherently problematic from a human rights perspective”.
In Canada, AWZ Venture does not require any export permit to facilitate the sale of cybersecurity technology. Those companies that facilitate the movement of military equipment, or items that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction, require a broker permit.
Global Affairs Canada declined to comment on AWZ Ventures’ business dealings with any foreign countries.
In an email to Radio-Canada/CBC, the department said that “Canada has one of the most rigorous export control systems in the world, and respect for human rights is protected in our export control legislation.”
