Canada

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Intelligence service ignored confessed spy, lawyer says

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 02/8/2013 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

HALIFAX -- Canadian intelligence officials made no attempt to get more information from a navy spy who confessed to selling military secrets to Russia for years, said his lawyer on the eve of sentencing for Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle.

Mike Taylor said he was taken aback that no one from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and other agencies expressed any interest in talking to Delisle, who pleaded guilty to funnelling classified data to Russian agents.

"I do find it surprising," Taylor said Thursday, adding he expected they may want to know exactly what he leaked.

Delisle, 41, pleaded guilty last October to one count of breach of trust and two charges of passing information to a foreign entity that could harm Canada's interests.

Taylor said Delisle was interviewed only once by the RCMP in January 2012, when the Halifax navy officer confessed and described how he routinely smuggled sensitive information out of the secure military facilities where he worked and passed it to the Russians through a shared email account.

After that, he says there were no overtures from CSIS, the Communications Security Establishment or National Defence to interview Delisle as he awaited trial.

Officials at National Defence refused to address the issue, only saying in an email Thursday, "We cannot comment on the substance of the investigation until the case has been concluded."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2013 A12

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