Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says companies or individuals will be held accountable if they are found to have violated the federal Import and Export Act.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Ottawa is examining whether Canadian technology and weapons are ending up in Russia’s war against Ukraine, warning that companies would be punished if they tried to evade federal sanctions against Moscow.
A report by a human-rights watchdog on Tuesday said millions of dollars of Canadian technology has been shipped through a sprawling network of Hong Kong-based shell companies to Russia’s war machine.
Ms. Anand told reporters on the way out of a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday that Canada has one of the strongest sanctions regimes in the world. However, she emphasized that Ottawa won’t tolerate any Canadian companies or individuals who violate the federal Import and Export Act.
“If there are violations of that act, we will be sure that the suppliers are held accountable,” she said.
The Washington-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, combed through Ukrainian battlefield forensics, Hong Kong public records and three years of Russian customs data.
The 49-page report maps out where Canadian electronic and aerospace parts appear in Russian weapons in Ukraine, who moves them and how Canada’s sanctions and enforcement measures have failed to stop the flow of technology to Moscow’s military.
A Russian drone is displayed as part of an open-air exhibition of destroyed military equipment in Kyiv.SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Among the shipments it identified – since Russia’s full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February, 2022 – were 59 consignments of Canadian-made network and signals-distribution hardware, 17 shipments of global navigation satellite antennas, 1,300 shipments of power converters and 26 shipments of microelectronics and engine parts.
Global News also reported that Canadian firearms are still turning up in Russia despite sanctions banning such exports.
Photos of Canadian-made rifles can be found increasingly on Russian social-media channels, according to the Global News report.
In reference to that report, a senior government official said the Canadian rifles were possibly acquired either through battlefield losses from Ukrainian forces who are being supplied with some Cadex rifles, or via illicit acquisition through third countries. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the official because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
The Globe is also not naming the domestic companies identified in the CFHK report because CFHK said there is “little evidence these Canadian companies acted knowingly,” noting the “purpose of the transshipments networks is to obscure the final destination.”
Ms. Anand said Global Affairs “will be monitoring and taking these types of claims very seriously.” She added: “I am actually looking into this issue and others right now, but I’ll leave it at that for now.”
The CFHK report said Canada’s sanctions and enforcement measures sound good on paper but are rarely enforced.
The report called for a much greater focus on third-country procurement networks in places such as Hong Kong.
CFHK said in its report that Canada has not put sanctions on any of the illicit traders in Hong Kong, unlike the United States and Britain. Canadian exporters still face little pressure to track what happens with their goods once they leave the country, the report added.
CFHK is urging Ottawa to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and Russian providers named in its findings, issue a ministerial direction designating Hong Kong as a high-risk jurisdiction, prosecute domestic violators and penalize manufacturers for due-diligence failures.
The CFHK report said that Hong Kong-based SBF Group, run by a Russian couple, moved millions of dollars of technology to Russian buyers, acting as a front company to get around Western sanctions. Other Hong Kong companies allegedly supplying Russia with Canadian components are Kim Ocean Ltd., Asia Pacific Links Ltd. and PremierElectric HK Ltd., which has links to Belarus.
The Canadian hardware was found in Iranian Shahed and Mohajer drones that the Russian military has been deploying against Ukraine, CFHK said. Some may have also been used in Russian-made Orlan-10 drones, while other components were discovered in land-based weapons.
Beyond battlefield evidence, CFHK said it identified 153 shipments since February, 2022, of Canadian-origin dual-use technology through Hong Kong, worth US$2.5-million, including fibre modules, KVM extenders − to control computers from a far distance − and high-reliability connectors.
With a report from Emily Haws