Many people love a good spy story and many of us grew up with the ever-popular James Bond series. The story plots were exciting and we got to travel the world in our own living rooms. The thing is, we always knew it was just make-believe. However what happens when it is the real thing going on in our own country?
CTV News published today that a Canadian spy has been found and sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling secret information to Russia. They say, “Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, 41, showed little emotion as he was sentenced Friday to concurrent sentences for breach of trust and communicating information to a foreign entity that could harm Canada's interests.”
Justice Patrick Curran did not buy into the notion that Delisle was heartbroken over the end of his marriage being the cause of his unpatriotic behavior. During sentencing Delisle did apologize for betraying his country and asked forgiveness from his parents and children.
CTV News writes, “Delisle was arrested in January 2012 following a lengthy investigation and accused of passing secrets to Russian agents for close to five years between 2007 and 2011. He was paid nearly $72,000 for the information he gave. He also received $40,000 when he visited a Russian named Victor in Brazil in 2011, just before he became the target of an investigation that led to his arrest. Delisle became the first person to be charged under the Security of Information Act, which was passed into law following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.”
Delisle obtained his secret information about Russia from government computers, copied the data on to discs and memory sticks, and then emailed them to an account he shared with his Russian accomplice.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay did not find the information which was taken serious enough to cause any major damage however, “Brig.-Gen. Rob Williams, director general of military signals intelligence, testified at the sentencing hearing that Delisle caused "exceptionally grave damage."
When spies are living among us, whether they are our own people or those of a foreign country it is extremely disturbing for the general populace to understand. America was shocked to hear that 11 Russian spies were living in the USA in 2010.
Former counterintelligence agent for the FBI, Joe Navarro wrote in his article, “Spies Among us” published in Psychology Today that,” Information of every kind has its own value depending on who wants it and why. Take industrial espionage, for instance. Industrial espionage can alter the wealth of a nation and thus its capacity to compete commercially and wage war. “
Of course Canadian citizens will hope the information leaked to the Russians was a minor as Defence Minister Peter MacKay says it was.
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