The federal government is being told to reboot a $100 million Canadian Forces project to buy night-vision equipment in the wake of allegations the proposed purchase was designed to favour U.S. manufacturers.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal issued the recommendation on Nov. 17 after receiving a complaint from a Canadian defence firm Cadex Inc. of Quebec and Photonis, a French company.

Bids for the contract to buy night-vision binoculars were to have been submitted on May 2. But last-minute changes in specifications for the image intensifier tubes that were at the heart of the binoculars all but limited those to systems built by U.S.-firms. That, in turn, meant the parts would be covered under U.S.-arms export regulations, allowing the United States to control the flow of those c

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