OTTAWA — A Chinese maker of surveillance camera systems says the national security review process that led the federal government to order it to shut down its Canadian operations was unfair.
Hikvision made the arguments in a court filing challenging a June 27 federal government directive ordering it to close down its business in Canada.
The company said the review process was procedurally unfair, the conclusion it reached was unreasonable and the government directive was based on incorrect assumptions.
Hikvision, which describes itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of surveillance equipment, has had a Canadian subsidiary for the past decade. It said in the court documents Hikvision Canada has 66 full-time employees.
End users of its products are mostly "non-critical small and medium businesses, such as hotels, condominiums, convenience stores etc.," it said.
Its products were being offered for sale by at least one major Canadian retailer until recently. A spokesperson for Best Buy Canada said the company stopped selling Hikvision products on July 1. A spokesperson for Home Depot declined to answer when asked whether the company halted sales of Hikvision products.
Hikvision said in a media statement Monday it will continue operating normally for the time being, following an “agreement” with the attorney general.
Hikvision has also faced sanctions in the U.S., Australia and the U.K. Some of those sanctions are due to claims that Hikvision supplied China with surveillance cameras used in the Xinjiang region, where the Uyghur population has faced human rights abuses.
The company argued in the court document that Industry Minister Mélanie Joly abruptly concluded the government's review, did not properly communicate deadlines and declined to consider additional information the company wanted to provide.
It said Joly's conclusion that Hikvision's Canadian division was harmful to national security "was not transparent, intelligible or justified and was therefore unreasonable."
The minister "erroneously relied on information that has no factual basis and is inconsistent with the information provided by Hikvision Canada," the company said.
Joly said in an online post following the shutdown order that the government looked at information and evidence provided by Canada’s security and intelligence community.
The minister said at the time she would move to ensure the federal government doesn't use or purchase equipment from the company.
While Joly stopped short of telling Canadians to stop using Hikvision technology, she urged them to “take note of this decision and make their own decisions accordingly.”
China has said it "strongly deplores and firmly opposes" Canada's directive. In a June 28 statement, a Chinese embassy spokesperson called on Canada to “change course immediately, stop abusing national security and politicizing economic and trade issues.”
— With files from Tara Deschamps
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2025.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
