One immigration lawyer said it’s the first time he’s seen the espionage and terrorism section of the immigration act applied to civilian professionals
Was it a mistake, the work of a “rogue” visa officer, or a hidden government agenda to target a controversial telecommunications corporation?
“It was already out in the open about Huawei and these kind of security concerns,” said the Beijing-based immigration consultant. “But even then I could recognize this is a bit of a stretch. Huawei is a company with thousands and thousands of employees, and the visa officer was simply refusing on the basis of the company’s notoriety or reputation.”
“Decisions on applications are made by highly trained officers in accordance with Canadian immigration laws,” said Larivière. “All applications from around the world are assessed equally against exactly the same criteria.” The three Chinese applicants for permanent resident status all received letters in 2016 saying there were reasonable grounds to believe they belonged to an organization that engaged in espionage, subversion or terrorism — making them inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Huawei was already attracting controversy at the time, with Australia and the U.S. banning use of its equipment in broadband networks over espionage suspicions. The company had repeatedly, though, denied the allegations. Lum said his staff in Shenzhen — where Huawei is headquartered — were taken aback, as they had successfully helped a number of company workers immigrate to Canada previously. So he called in Hong Kong-based immigration lawyer Jean-Francois Harvey, another Canadian.
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