Undercover sting operation led to arrest of Canadian accused of trying to pass secrets to China
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent ElkaimChief Superintendent Larry Tremblay, Director General of the RCMP Federal Policing Criminal Operations of the RCMP, announces with partners from the Toronto Police Service the arrest of 53 year old Qing Quentin Huang of Toronto for charges under the Security of Information Act with two attempts to communicate to a foreign entity, China, sensitive Canadian Government information relating to a National Shipbuilding procurement Strategy at a press conference in Toronto on Sunday, Dec 1, 2013.
A speedy undercover investigation that lasted less than 48 hours led to the arrest this weekend of a Toronto naval engineer accused of trying to pass secrets about Canadian patrol ships to the government of China.
Qing Quentin Huang, 53, was charged Sunday with two counts under the Security of Information Act for allegedly attempting to “communicate to a foreign entity” details of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
Ian Smith / Postmedia News fileQing Quentin Huang, 53, was charged Sunday with two counts under the Security of Information Act for allegedly attempting to “communicate to a foreign entity” details of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
A Canadian citizen who immigrated from China via Singapore in 2001, Mr. Huang was employed at Lloyd’s Register Canada, which was subcontracted by Irving Shipbuilding to work on the design phase of Canada’s Arctic patrol vessels.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service notified the RCMP on Thursday afternoon that Mr. Huang had allegedly contacted the Chinese embassy in Ottawa to offer up the sensitive documents, several sources said.
Fearing Mr. Huang might begin handing over the materials, the Ontario National Security Enforcement Team, working with the Toronto Police Service, had undercover operators pose as Chinese agents and approach him about acquiring the documents, those familiar with the case said.
He was arrested at just before 1 p.m. Saturday in Burlington, Ont., not far from his suburban home in Waterdown. He was to appear in court in Toronto on Wednesday. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.
Chief Supt. Larry Tremblay, head of the RCMP’s federal policing criminal operations, would not comment on the alleged sting operation. “That will all come in court,” he said. “We have deployed a number of techniques to gather the evidence necessary to obtain the attorney-general consent to lay the two charges that were laid this morning.”
Unlike Jeffrey Delisle, the military intelligence analyst who leaked secret documents to the Russian embassy until his arrest last year, the suspect in this case did not appear to have succeeded in passing on any secrets. “We are confident that our prompt and firm intervention has limited the damage to our collective safety and security,” said RCMP Chief Supt. Jennifer Strachan.
HandoutSub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle in a handout photo.
According to sources, police moved immediately to shut down the alleged espionage attempt due to concerns that — as the Delisle and Edward Snowden cases showed — sensitive government information can easily be stored and transmitted using today’s technology. “It was a very quick turnaround for us,” Chief Supt. Strachan said.
Police would not comment on the suspected motive but sources said it was not necessarily financial and that Mr. Huang was apparently unhappy at work, having been excluded from any role on the government shipbuilding project, which would have likely required a security clearance.
While China has long been accused of spying in Canada, police said Mr. Huang was allegedly working alone and this was not a case of “state-sponsored” espionage. “You can’t blame the Chinese government for this if this is strictly him under his own steam,” said Ray Boisvert, a former senior CSIS official. “But maybe not. Things are never as they appear, either.”
He said the amateurish way Mr. Huang allegedly went about his failed attempt to relay documents suggested he was not a trained spy. “Clearly [he had] no tradecraft training because nobody would do it that ham-handedly,” Mr. Boisvert said.
It is rare for Canadian officials to announce espionage cases, which tend to be resolved quietly, sometimes by expelling foreign agents or diplomats. In 2006, a Russian “illegal,” a spy who had assumed the identity of a Canadian, was arrested in Montreal and deported.
Det. Insp. Steve Irwin, a Toronto police officer and member of the Ontario national security team, depicted the case as the kind of work that unfolded behind the scenes. “This is an example of what goes on daily, and not often in the public domain,” he told reporters
At a news conference on Sunday, the RCMP said the “sensitive information” Mr. Huang had aimed to hand to the Chinese concerned a national program launched by the government in 2010 to supply new ships to the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard.
The information in question “relates to certain elements” of the multi-billion-dollar strategy, which encompasses patrol ships, frigates, naval auxiliary vessels, scientific research vessels and ice breakers, police said. “In these types of cases, sharing of information may give a foreign entity a tactical, military or competitive advantage by knowing the specifications of vessels responsible for defending Canadian waters and Canadian sovereignty,” Chief Supt. Strachan said.
Police said the investigation was ongoing. The Department of Foreign Affairs “has been engaged and is addressing this issue,” Chief Supt. Tremblay said, when asked if Canada had approached China about the matter. “We are confident that both the threat and the damage that could have been caused by the activity of this individual have been minimized and disrupted,” he added.
Experts said the case was another demonstration of the dangers of sharing classified information too widely, particular with private contractors. Mr. Boisvert said it was also a reminder of the “insider threat,” and that the dangers did not stem just from attempts to obtain secrets through hacking.
Peter J. Thompson/National PostThe RCMP announced at their Toronto Airport location, the charging of Canadian citizen Qing Quentin Huang, 53 years old, whose home is reported to be at 31 Brookhurst Crescent in Waterdown, Ont.
National Post
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