Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle arrives Tuesday at the Provincial Court in Halifax to face espionage charges. Delisle, an intelligence officer with the Canadian Navy, is accused of passing information to a foreign entity.
Photograph by: Paul Darrow, Reuters, Postmedia News
An unfolding espionage case involving a Royal Canadian Navy intelligence officer could be connected to the territorial dispute in the Arctic, an intelligence expert said Tuesday.
Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former officer with the CSIS spy agency, said his sources told him the duties of Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle in Halifax included monitoring vessel traffic in the North Atlantic.
Delisle had access to sensitive information, including locations of ocean sensors that help authorities monitor ship movements. That type of information could be useful to a country, such as Russia, if it wanted to try to navigate waters without being detected, he said.
Media reports have suggested Delisle was leaking information to Russia.
Jeremy Kinsman, a former Canadian ambassador to Russia, suggested Tuesday the type of information Russia might want could be related to Canada's intentions over territorial claims in the Arctic. Canada and Russia have duelling claims to the mineral riches of the Arctic and the strategic and commercial potential of the Northwest Passage shipping route.
Neither police nor government officials would say who was receiving the information or the nature of the information that was leaked.
"I can assure you the government of Canada takes every step to protect government information, secure and otherwise, " Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Tuesday.
The Russian Embassy in Ottawa had no comment.
Delisle, 40, of Bedford, N.S., who remains in custody, is accused of passing protected government information to an unknown foreign body from between July 6, 2007 and Jan. 13 of this year. Court documents allege the leaks took place near Ottawa, Halifax, Bedford, N.S., and Kingston, Ont. He could face a life sentence.
Delisle, who neighbours have described as a regular family man, is the first person to be charged under Canada's Security of Information Act. The act was part of a package of anti-terrorism laws introduced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Court documents allege the intelligence officer leaked information that could "increase the capacity of a foreign entity or a terrorist group to harm Canadian interests."
Mackay said it remains to be seen if Canadian security was compromised.
Juneau-Katsuya said Canada is known abroad as a "playground" for spies and Delisle's arrest underscores the need for this country to beef up its counter-intelligence. Canada is a target because it is a technology and research centre and because of its close relationships with other western countries, he said.
"We're in the inner circle of all the major military alliances and decision-making of the western world," he said. "We have the secrets of all our friends."
Juneau-Katsuya said it would not surprise him if Russia were the country receiving the leaked information.
Canada is a member of NATO and Russia remains an adversary despite the end of the Cold War, he said.
Michael Byers, a political science professor at the University of B.C. and Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, said Tues-day that while the situation is unsettling, it would have been far more serious during the Cold War.
"In the absence of significant military tension between Russia and NATO, there's no immediate use for that information," Byers said. "If this was 1980, I would be very alarmed by this development. I'm not alarmed by this, although I am certainly concerned."
Byers said any information potentially fed to Russian interests would be for use in case of future international tension. He said the affair could signal an apparent effort from the Russians to simply "cover its bases," adding that "we do the same thing. I've spent enough time with [Canadian] military officers to know they have plans for everything.
"Given that Russia's principal military strength remains its nuclear sub-marine fleet ... and needs to be able to access the Atlantic Ocean via some relatively narrow waterways, having inside information as to the acoustic sensor locations of NATO countries would certainly facilitate the covert movement of those vessels."
He stressed that with Russia's cur-rent standing in the global community, including its recent addition to the World Trade Organization, there's no reason for it to "upset the apple cart."
A larger question, Byers said, is how Prime Minister Stephen Harper chooses to respond to the situation.
"You can either kind of shrug it off in terms of foreign relations ... or you can use it as an opportunity to stir up some controversy in international relations," he said. "I would encourage the Harper government to take the former approach and to shrug this off. We all know that espionage hap-pens and we also know that as far as Russia goes, that steering Russia in a more co-operative direction is good for everyone."
Whatever the case, said Kinsman, the alleged breach is serious, he said. Canada is the custodian of a lot of other countries' information and if this country is seen as lax in terms of protecting that information, other countries may be hesitant about sharing information in the future, Kinsman said.
"If there are violations, you have to show that you are acting decisively. If you become suspect you won't get what you need for the monitoring of your shores."
MacKay insisted Tuesday that Canada remains trusted by its allies.
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