Photo: Ian Usher on Unsplash
The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry has ordered the shuttering of two B.C. based technology companies, one of which makes drones with military applications.
In a brief statement posted Friday (May 24), Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said two companies must be dissolved, following a national security review.
The companies in question are Bluvec Technologies Inc. and Pegauni Technology Inc.
“The government’s decisions are based on facts and evidence and on the advice ofCanada’s security and intelligence community, and other governmentpartners,” Champagne said in the news release.
“While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, we will act decisively when investments threaten our national security.”
Bluvec, based in Burnaby, makes a drone detection system, which has potential military applications.
As reported by Glacier Media last year, Bluvec was successfully sued by another Burnaby drone detection company, Skycope Technologies for stealing proprietary source code.
The founders of both Bluevec and Skycope were friends who originally worked for the same cybersecurity company in China, according B.C. Supreme Court documents.
The principals of Bluvec identified in the lawsuit are Junfeng Jia (aka Jack Jia), Leyuan Pan (aka Michael Pan), Kunyu Zhang (aka Eric Zhang) and Qianqi Zhuang (aka Tim Zhuang).
Also listed as defendants in the case were Xiaoqian Wu (aka Karl Wu) and Jiawei Li.
The principal of Skyscope Technologies is Zhenhua (Eric) Liu, according to the court ruling.
The court case notes that both Bluvec and Skyscope developed technology that “enables users to detect and block or ‘jam’ unwanted drones.”
Bluvec and two of its principals – Junfeng Jia and Leyuan Pan – were ordered to pay Skycope Technologies $800,000 for breaching employment agreements with Skycope.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Bluvec said Jack Jia was unavailable.