CSIS warns China, Russia, Iran continue to pose threats to Canadian sovereignty
Canada’s top spy is ringing the alarm, warning that hostile foreign powers, namely China and Russia, are aggressively targeting the Canadian Arctic, posing a direct threat to the nation’s sovereignty.
Canada’s top spy is ringing the alarm, warning that hostile foreign powers, namely China and Russia, are aggressively targeting the Canadian Arctic, posing a direct threat to the nation’s sovereignty.
“Chinese spies have tried to recruit Canadians with information and military expertise,” Dan Rogers, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service during a speech on Thursday.
“It is not a surprise that CSIS has observed both cyber and non-cyber intelligence collection efforts targeting both governments and the private sector in the region.”
His warning comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney continues efforts to rekindle diplomatic ties with Beijing, with a trip planned to China next year at the invitation of President Xi Jinping.
He noted that while both China and Russia are actively seeking a strategic foothold in Canada’s Arctic, Moscow in particular has been acquiring Canadian technology through illicit procurement schemes to aid its war against Ukraine.
The agency has informed several Canadian companies that “Europe-based front companies seeking to acquire their goods were in fact connected to Russian agents.”
A network of the shell companies Russia is using is also based in Hong Kong.
“Once in Russia, these Canadian products are then used to support Russian military efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere,” said Rogers.
Additionally, Rogers said Iran has continued its clandestine effort to carry out lethal threats against Canadians.
His warning echoes that of former attorney general and Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, who raised alarms earlier this year about the presence of Iranian sleeper cells residing in Canada as tensions rise in the Middle East.
He said these covert agents could be activated to target critics of Tehran within Canada. Cotler was allegedly the target of an assassination plot last year. He was under constant RCMP protection in the weeks that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
According to CSIS, Cotler has been a high-profile target of Iran since 2008, after he launched a global campaign to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listed as a terrorist entity.
“In particularly alarming cases over the last year, we’ve had to prioritize our operations to counter the actions of Iranian intelligence services and their proxies who have targeted individuals they perceive as threats to their regime,” said Rogers.
“In more than one case, this involved detecting, investigating and disrupting potentially lethal threats against individuals in Canada.”
According to Rogers, younger people are also becoming increasingly vulnerable to violent extremism.
“Worryingly, nearly one in ten terrorism investigations at CSIS now includes at least one subject investigation under the age of 18,” he said. “Fortunately, only a small number of youth or adults with extreme views resort to violence. But when they do, the consequences are devastating.”
A total of 29 people in Canada have been killed as a result of violent extremism since 2014, and at least 60 others have been victims, he noted.
Finally, Rogers stressed the threat posed by foreign governments and corporations’ access to Canadians’ data, warning that some of these entities “choose to act against Canada’s interest with new ways to weaponize data and information.”
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