By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Chinese telecom tech manufacturer Huawei has hired an unsuccessful 2019 Liberal Party candidate to lobby the federal government on its behalf – the latest move in a strategy to hire former political party operatives to carry the message that it’s not a security threat to Canada.
Antoine Bujold, a government affairs advisor at Consilium in Boischatel, Quebec since 2014, was registered as a Huawei lobbyist on February 21 to “assist the client in its effort to meet with the Government to discuss Huawei Canada’s current and long-term investments and business objectives in Canada,” including issues from “domestic and global security assurance practices, to Canada’s policies and programs related to supporting foreign investment in Canada’s Information Communications and Telecommunications (ICT) sector.”
Bujold (pictured, from his LinkedIn profile) is registered to lobby the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), Innovation Canada, the prime minister’s office, the Senate and the House of Commons, and the Standards Council of Canada.
The federal government is currently deliberating on whether to ban Huawei from the 5G network, 
whose rollout is already underway in the country. Britain has already decided to allow Huawei into the next-generation build, while the U.S. is moving on banning the world’s largest telecom equipment maker and pressuring allies to do the same.
Huawei has embarked on a strategy to hire political party operatives to represent it on Parliament Hill, including Jake Enwright, former director of media relations for the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper advisor Alykhan Velshi, and former Liberal Party candidate Scott Bradley, who left Huawei last year.
Bujold, who has been a lobbyist since 2016, was an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for the riding of Beauport-Limoilou in the 2015 and 2019 elections, which have gone to the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois, respectively. He was previously co-owner at restaurant Brynd and president of the commercial development company Maguire.
Phone messages left for Huawei and Bujold were not returned.
This month, Telus announced that it would use Huawei for its 5G infrastructure outside of its core network.
Rogers and Bell have already turned on their 5G network and their first 5G phone, the Samsung S20 5G, is expected next month. Rogers, Bell and Videotron have selected Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung respectively, for their 5G network. Samsung is an emerging player in this space and Bell has said Nokia is only the first 5G vendor it has chosen to work with as it, too is awaiting the federal government’s overdue decision on Huawei.
