While the list of prohibited organizations claims to be “country agnostic” and “does not target or profile any group of people or country,” this is clearly not the case. Over 80 per cent of the institutions named are in China, with the remainder in Russia or Iran. The list seems to have been cobbled together from similar lists compiled by the Pentagon and conservative think-tanks such as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute without any further justification other than the overseas institutions ‘may pose a risk to Canada’s national security.”
Thanks for sharing. I have to say that the article has a heavy slant towards why we should be concerned with this policy (and we should, there are some very valid questions raised), without addressing the elephant in the room, of Chinese government interference in Canada.
It doesn’t help that the authors get some very easy details wrong, like:
The pushback is in reaction to the New Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (hereafter New Policy) announced by the ministers of Health, Public Security, and ISEC (Innovation, Science and Economic Development) in January. The policy prohibits research collaboration with Named Research Organizations in Sensitive Technology Research Areas
That should be Public Safety, and ISED.
With the CCP fucking with Canada multiple times ( viral research stolen, reneging on Canada China collaboration on COVID vaccine research etc.) It’s no wonder Canada put in new rules on researching with China. I bet there was a lot more that the press didn’t have access to.
The 11 sensitive research areas are defined as Advanced Digital Infrastructure, Energy, Materials and Manufacturing, Sensing and Surveillance, Weapons, Aerospace, Space and Satellite Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Human-Machine Integration, Life Sciences (Biotechnology, Medical, and Healthcare), Quantum Science, and Robotics.
This seems very reasonable to me, except for healthcare. Why on earth would we want to share this with Russia, China and Iran?
While Canadian researchers are forbidden to work with the 80% Chinese researchers, European/Asian researchers keep working on the subject, pushing Canada further back.
Why would CSIS worry about domains like AI and Materials where Canada is quite behind China and 99% of the research will become public anyways? Are they also requiring Asian/European collaborators to not share the findings with banned Chinese institutions?
