Globe&Mail, June 25th – Canada’s outspoken spy chief has unleashed a political furor by saying that a number of politicians are influenced by foreign states, comments that left his critics wondering whether he will survive as head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
New York Daily News, June 28th – Ten people have been arrested for allegedly serving as secret agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday. Eight of 10 were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term, deep cover assignments in the United States on behalf of Russia.
h/t Stephen J.
Olivia Chow
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ndp-mp-olivia-chow-slams-baseless-spy-stories/article1617168/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=web&utm_medium=twitter
“Baseless spy stories belong in novels and movie theatres,” she said, adding Mr. Fadden’s comments, aired Tuesday by the CBC, “need to be condemned by the Prime Minister of Canada.”
Wow. I wonder how she knows that the accusations are blanket BASELESS.
It’s one thing to demand accountability. It’s another to dismiss this as baseless without any kind of investigation or insider knowledge of the validity of the accusation.
Me thinks thou doth protest TOO MUCH!
Yeah, I saw that Chow interview on CBC – she’s a bad actor.
I wasn’t her shtick!
Correction: I wasn’t buying her shtick!
As often as people bring up McCarthy’s “Red Scare”, I am forced to remind them that opened KGB documents confirmed that Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Salvador Allende, Harold Glasser, Nathan Silvermaster, Elizabeth Bentley, Whittaker Chambers, Harry Gold, Sonya Gold, and many others were all Soviet spies and agents.
There was no Red Scare. There was a Red Threat.
Excellent juxtaposition — particularly apt given the two stories occurred within just days of each other.
Point to ponder: What foreign power would look to a Dipper for government intel?
Yep, it would take a real Einstein of an intelligence officer to find a Canadian politician under the influence of China.
Here’s a good way to start — get a list of all of them.
Olivia Chow thinks Putin is an ex kindergarten teacher with nice pecks!
Embattled CSIS boss doing his job
By MONTE SOLBERG, QMI Agency
I feel like Indiana Jones.
Last week I left Alberta where it was flooding only to get to Ottawa where I survived the great earthquake of 2010. Then it was to Toronto.
To the north of the city a tornado ripped apart a small town. In Toronto, G20 protesters were certainly angry about something and they shouted their concerns very loudly thinking, I suppose, this would give them more credibility.
Surely I’m not the only person who has noted that all of these calamities occurred at the same time. See, this is what happens when those terrible Conservatives are in power too long.
Anyway, forget that lame joke because we have big public policy issues to deal with, not the least of which is a serious infestation of foreign spies.
As you may recall, CSIS Deputy Minister Dick Fadden was on CBC-TV last week talking about foreign agents, especially the Chinese, influencing Canadian politicians. Needless to say this was one more fascinating revelation in a week of events that looked like they were right out of the Book of Revelations.
I, for one, take Fadden’s allegations quite seriously.
Dick Fadden was my deputy minister for much of my time as minister for Citizenship and Immigration.
His soft-spoken manner and unassuming style belies a sharp mind and steely spine. He has a distinguished record as one of Canada’s most competent bureaucrats.
That’s why I give credence to his comments.
In fact, other security experts interviewed by CBC confirmed what Fadden said.
I also think it’s wildly irresponsible to speculate about firing him based on a single interview, especially after such a long and distinguished career of public service.
Yes, he seems to have given contradictory information about whether the Privy Council Office knew about this matter.
Yet in a sense everyone in the security field knows these intrigues are going on, including security experts at the PCO, though they might not have known of the specific allegations raised by Fadden.
Clumsy alarm
While Fadden may have clumsily sounded the alarm about the coziness between some politicians and foreign agents, surely what’s important is that he sounded the alarm, not that he was indelicate in how he said it.
All of this is significant in a couple of ways.
First, our top spy is taking his job seriously in explaining how and roughly where Canadian interests may be compromised.
Let’s remember that Fadden’s interview aired just before the prime minister’s apology to the families of those who died in the Air India bombing.
If only our security services had erred so firmly on the side of caution in the lead up to that completely avoidable tragedy.
Being blunt about the danger posed by foreign agents is surely more important than the embarrassment caused for some provincial and municipal politicians, though Fadden should have divulged to them what he could.
Second, the most naive protestors can still protest the police and the military because the police and the military aren’t as naive about the world as those protestors.
Dick Fadden is doing his job and I’m glad he is.
http://www.ottawasun.com/comment/columnists/monte_solberg/2010/06/25/14516131.html
Talk about timing… wow…
This just out on Global. Family of ducks saved crossing a highway when woman pulls over to passing lane and parks, though two, a man and his daughter, killed when they slam into the parked car. This tragedy occurred in Quebec, and shows what happens when people put nature before humans.
Did you guy’s not see the yuri brezmenov video it has been a fourty year mission of russia obama the hippies you name it have all been a part of there plan to weekend the west from with in wow kate could you post that video again PEOPLE LISTEN TO WHAT HE SAY’S!!!
Paul in calgary.
On ctv.ca — http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20100628/russian-spies-canada-100628/ -, Some were petending to be Canadians , with phony passports .
Olivia Chow thinks Putin is an ex kindergarten teacher with nice pecks!
Posted by: Third man at 8:30 PM
Olivia Layten has now aquired the ability to think???
“a number of politicians are influenced by foreign states,” … That’s an interesting choice of words to describe the CSIS director’s remarks alleging that high-ranking fed. and provincial politicians are covertly working for certain other nations, to the detriment of Canada’s interests and national security.
As has been noted by a philosopher, “reality is a perception.” Could this Globe & Wail tone and description be to ready the G&W to low-ball or ameliorate perceptions of these (obviously non-Conservative) politicians’ acts, should this matter get even more serious?
That is a pretty chilling video Paul. They should be showing it schools. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some OPSEU and CUPE heads were spys. They have access to a lot of government resources. Plus they hate our country.
So Canada’s Security Intelligence is doing its job, and what they are hired to do — ferret out spies, terrorists, etc., and Olivia Chow and other politicians don’t like it and think the CSIS head should be fired for stating the obvious.
Nothing whatsoever suspicious about Chow’s comments folks — nothing to see here. Everyone knows that Canada is the only country on the face of the earth that is spy-free and doesn’t need a security intelligence service to protect National interests. And unlike other politicians around the world, Canadian politicians are completely immune to bribes, blackmail, ideological traps, etc., or any of the highly sophisticated and scientific methods that professional foreign agents have used for decades to successfully recruit government officials from other places around the world. Canada is simply immune from it.
Olivia knows that because the Chinese told her so, you bunch of dummies!
YES GORD!!! That is why i asked kate to post it again ..i will never forget what he said this has been a mission of there for a very long time the kgb they are set and programed to destroy america and canada would be collateral damage in all of this they could use canada to get to america and it is very chilling becaseu of how clear he was when he said it ……Oh yeah where is yuri?
Didn’t he dissapear shortly after making that video and if anyone needs proof now of what yuri was saying well now it is being slowly revealed he was telling the truth . Good on him
KATE will you please post that video for everyone again so they can see what he say’s ?
Paul in calgary.
Waiting to see how many of the ‘anarchists’ arrested at the U of T have government jobs.
I think if the CISI have real evidence of this they should have taken it to the RCMP, and to an Attorney General in a province not known to have this infiltration, and let the cards fall as they may. By painting some governments as tainted and not naming names, they’ve painted all governments as being suspect.
Those that have aided those working for other countries, need to be named as well. The political masters that welcomed these people into Canada, in particular.
Paul in Calgary, and others? here’s the link to these very informative videos…. there are 9, start here, it’s a lesson for anyone studying the left. It’s worth the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xdBnFPqOI&playnext_from=TL&videos=q3LqPEDrqQM
No one believed spies were in Canada before and no one believes it now. One would think once a spy was caught, all doubt would be removed. Not for the idiots.
One would risk considerable public embarrassment in Canada if they for honorable moral reasons identified anyone working for a foreign power.
Having known someone (now deceased) who was working for the Soviet Union I can truthfully say that Canadians are living in a world of rose coloured glasses if they think spies are only in movies. People ARE working for Governments and extremist groups who would harm our Nation and our way of life.
One only has to look at the reaction to the CSIS comments to realize how much nastiness a person would have to live with if they spoke in defense of our Nation and named individuals.
I’m an old guy now, but I have seen and continue to see links between individuals here in Canada and our enemies.
It’s no longer my future I worry about, but young Canadians of today should take these warnings very seriously.
Texas @ 8:19
Covering all angles. They are MP;s and they sit on committees and they see documents, see the afghan detainee issue.
And who knows, you get a long shot to pay off and you hit the motherload, think coalition, think Royal Flush.
Almost as good as the long plan the Blocistes had going. Marcel Masse as Minister of Defence….yowsa, when you think of the information he took with him, the officers he promoted and put in command positions.
If this was the UK there would be a book out about it all, sadly in canada nobody would believe it.
This generation forgets the Igor Ghuezenko defection of the 50’s. A Soviet embassey employee walked away,complete with pregnant wife, from the Soviet Embassey in Ottawa, to the mounties with a $hitload of Soviet files and documents….
The wife was clandestinely delivered at a out-of-town hospital, Sudbury I think, with a mounty posing as her husband. When ID etc was demanded..he hauled out a wad of cash and in broken english “I got money…I pay.”
That resulted in the defections of McClean, Philby and Burgess…..the top wundenkind of British Intelligence. They had been decades long Soviet moles and split when they thought they were exposed.
McCarthy is still ridiculed…despite evidence that he was right—there really WERE REDS UNDER THE BEDS.
A Chinese PLA spy was found at the Los Alimos nuke labs not all that long ago.
This is probably a silly statement but wouldn’t it be a good idea to investigate people like Jackass Layton and Olivia Oyl Chow as people trying to drag us all down.
Texas @ 8:19, that was funny. However, to be serious, history has shown that generally it is the people of this political persuasion are exactly the ones who do this sort of thing.
POWinCA and sasquatch, thanks for reminding us. It is interesting and revealing that the left does not want to hear about this.
Canadians are wonderfully naive.
So does this mean that no foreign born citizens should run for any meaningful political office in this country?
Clearly they would be the most susceptible to being bought off or bribed or intimidated by a foreign govts, right?
Hay I’m not proposing a law, I’m just askin?
And some of us are incredibly resilient.
Syncro
Rockyt,
It means that some foreign born citizens may be agents of foreign governments.
They may be susceptible because they may have little allegiance to Canada because Canada does not really demand much.
There are plenty of traitorous natural born Canadians that can be bought off, bribed or intimidated.
To be honest, it annoys me when i see immigrants in political offices trying to change Canada. Be they english speaking or not, maybe they should leave it to the next generation to run for office.
Interesting show on East Germany leading up to the fall of the wall last night. The spies were interested in every detail of the people lives. What stuck me was that the young people fighting against the Communist were so similar to the lefties we have here fighting to be Communists. It’s too bad our lot refuse to discuss things with their lot. A little reality would go a long way.
Rocky T,
Its not about being foreign born it is about foreign influence. The CSIS claim was that influencers are identified early, education is paid for, jobs are found and contact maintained seeing where they go.
A good reason to ask for answers on background of any politician or senior bureacrat who comes close to power. How did they get there, who funded their lean years, who is(are) their mentor(s) and benefactors.
Not all who have a foreign sugar daddy, or even a domestic one, are being unduly influenced, but it would be a strong indicator to ask more questions.
i agree jay. well put.
paul in calgary.
How do you spell “Igor Gouzenko”?
Dave in Pa:
According to T.M.I.T.N.O., the following are approved satirical allusions to Canada’s erstwhile national newspaper:
The Mope and Wail
The Grope and Flail
The Mop and Pail
Forward any complaints to Dietrich Doppelganger, editor in chief.
Richard Needham, RIP.
Stephen
Have you read Aquarium by Victor Suvorov? If not then you should.