Post by Devon Babin.
If you believe the stereotypes, Ottawa is a boring town that just happens to be the capital of a G7 nation.
It isn’t sexy. It’s a sleepy little burg where government employees march to and from work, occasionally stopping long enough to grab a coffee at Bridgehead and maybe stroll down an increasingly barren Sparks St.
James Bond has never come through our fair city to foil an evil plot. London, Washington, Moscow – these are the cities where international espionage takes place, right?
Well, yes, but Ottawa needs to be added to that list.
The city is a pretty good place to be an active spy.
Remove the veil and you’ll see that Bytown is teeming with tempting targets for hostile governments. Beyond Parliament, it’s also the home of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Department of National Defence (DND), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) and more than 100 foreign embassies.
In other words, the city is a pretty good place to be an active spy.
“As a capital city and a G7 nation, yes there is espionage going on,” says Jez Littlewood, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Carleton University. “It would be naïve to think there is nothing going on.”
As a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance along with the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia, Canada is in a pretty exclusive club privy to a lot of top secret information. The Five Eyes is a pretty good title for a spy movie, but it’s also a group of nations actively sharing secret information that many other countries would love to get their collective hands on.
China and Russia tend to be at the top of the list when it comes to espionage, and for good reason. China has been accused of numerous state-sponsored cyberattacks aimed at Canadian assets in recent years, including a major attack in 2011 that targeted the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). In March, Canada denied visas to two Chinese telecom workers who were deemed security risks. One of the most publicized espionage stories of the past few years involved former Royal Canadian Naval sub-lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle who sold secrets to Russia starting in 2007 when he entered the Russian embassy in Ottawa, offering secret information in exchange for a reported $3,000 monthly pay off.
Of course, Russia and China aren’t the only ones looking to get inside information.
“All governments spy,” says Littlewood.
With so many embassies in Ottawa, it’s important to know that many countries have people stationed in their embassies who do not necessarily live up to their job titles.
According to Donald Mahar, a 41 year veteran of CSIS, CSEC and the RCMP Security Service, select staff members of many embassies are in Ottawa to make inroads and gather information from individuals privy to information ranging from trade negotiations, to stealth technology and defense priorities, to scientific research and nuclear secrets.
“That is one of their main functions – to penetrate host services,” says Mahar.
What espionage looks like in our digital age is not as obvious as you may think. Signal intelligence – intercepting coded information – has been around for more than a century, well before the First World War. Today, hacking and cyber warfare are undoubtedly effective, but the human element of spying remains.
It takes a certain type of person to meet a source, earn their trust and get them to speak about secret information.
“It’s always going to be a mix. You have to talk to people,” says Mahar. “Technology just doesn’t cover it.”
As you’re waiting in line for your favourite caffeinated beverage, take a quick look over your shoulder before reading a sensitive email on your government-supplied Blackberry. And if a suave, charming foreigner is asking you increasingly specific questions about Canada’s role in a certain round of trade talks, maybe hold off spilling the beans.
Devon is a seasoned journalist who has worked across Canada writing for dozens of websites and publications. Now working full-time in the marketing and communications world, he enjoys freelancing from time-to-time to get back to his roots. In his spare time you’ll find him walking his two dogs throughout Centretown or enjoying too many craft beer.
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