Stephen Harper involved in company looking to arrange sale of surveillance tech to UAE
CBC
Former prime minister Stephen Harper heads the advisory committee of a Toronto-based company now looking to facilitate the sale of cutting-edge surveillance technology to the United Arab Emirates — a country with a troubling human rights record.
AWZ Ventures finances Israeli surveillance technology systems, including facial recognition and crowd detection systems and services that deliver comprehensive information on individuals in real time.
The prospect of such technologies being offered to a country with a history of human rights abuses is being condemned by international cyberthreat and human rights experts in Canada, the U.K. and Israel.
Harper is a major player in this investment firm, serving as president of its advisory committee — which is composed of former members of the Mossad and other Israeli and American intelligence agencies, among others.
He is also a business partner with the firm, which has investments in 18 Israeli cybersecurity companies, according to its website.
AWZ Ventures is in the process of incorporating a subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Former Canadian diplomat Katherine Verrier-Fréchette has been hired as managing director of this subsidiary, AWZ Horizons, which will be based in Abu Dhabi, UAE's capital.
Verrier-Fréchette has been working full time for AWZ since February 2021, according to her Linkedin account.
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