Strongly Suspected Chinese spy loses bid to rejoin civil service

Adrian Humphreys | November 2, 2011

Jean Levac/Postmedia NewsHaiyan Zhang has lost her job in the federal public service because she was an alleged threat to public security.

Strongly Suspected Chinese Spy Haiyan Zhang- loses bid to rejoin civil service

A former senior analyst to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, who was fired when Canada’s spy agency questioned her “loyalty to Canada” over suspicion she was spying for China, has lost her fight to return to the civil service.

Haiyan Zhang, who worked as a senior communications analyst with the Privy Council Office in Ottawa, was suspected of having engaged in intelligence gathering during previous employment with Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, and retained contact with spies working in China, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported to the government in 2003 when recommending her “Top Secret” security clearance be denied.

While Ms. Zhang did not appeal that finding in court, she has been fighting for her right to a job in another government department ever since. The Federal Court of Canada has now ruled that she was not treated unfairly.

The case is the latest in a series of developments that has brought attention to alleged attempts at foreign interference in Ottawa.

Richard Fadden, the director of CSIS, publicly warned last year that some politicians were falling under the influence of foreign governments through personal relationships. He also said China was the most aggressive in pursuing unofficial allies, although it caused an outcry and he later backtracked on the seriousness of his allegations.

More recently came revelations that a Conservative MP sent romantic emails to a Xinhua journalist. In September Foreign Minister John Baird dismissed an outcry over provocative emails sent by Bob Dechert, his parliamentary secretary, to a Xinhua journalist as “ridiculous,” although Mr. Dechert admitted sending “flirtatious” messages to Shi Rong, a Toronto-based correspondent.

In Ms. Zhang’s case, there was such concern about the spectre of Chinese influence within the PCO that the government acted quickly to remove her and did not back down despite lengthy legal challenges that emerged from it.

“The exchange of internal emails demonstrates that senior PCO employees did not want to see Ms. Zhang continue to be employed in the public service,” wrote Justice Anne Mactavish in her ruling, released last week.

Ms. Zhang is a native of Lanzhou, China, who became a Canadian citizen in 1999, four years after moving to Ottawa.

She joined the government’s civil service in 2002 and obtained a “Secret” security clearance while working in a senior position at Industry Canada. The following year she was recruited by the PCO.

When the PCO sought to upgrade her security clearance to “Top Secret,” which would allow her access to more sensitive material, a CSIS investigation found “reasonable grounds to believe” she had been a spy when she worked with Xinhua, court heard.

CSIS further said Ms. Zhang maintained contacts with people still engaged in spying in China and, according to court documents, “questioned Ms. Zhang’s loyalty to Canada and recommended that the Clerk of the Privy Council deny Ms. Zhang the Top Secret clearance.”

The Clerk of the Privy Council went one step further, cancelling her “Secret” clearance as well in late 2003, which meant she was ineligible to work in the PCO, where every employee must maintain at least that level of security clearance.

She complained to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, which agreed there was reason to believe she may have engaged in intelligence collection on behalf of a foreign state. She did not appeal that finding in court.

In a previous interview with Postmedia News, Ms. Zhang said she poses no threat to Canada’s national security.

“The fact that I come from a country that’s not always viewed positively does not always help me,” she said. “But I know who I am, and I can speak to you with 100% confidence that I have not done anything that would substantiate those kinds of allegations.”

She grieved her job loss through the public service collective bargaining process and, in 2005, the Public Service Labour Relations Board accepted she could not work in the PCO without security clearance but said the government should reassign her to a less sensitive position.

For two months, the government searched for an alternative job. She applied for three positions but was not hired for any of them.

The government did not back down over its concerns over the Xinhua connection.

In fighting her case, Ms. Zhang said the PCO decided her continued employment with the government was “contrary to the national interest.”

“The exchange of internal emails demonstrates that senior PCO employees did not want to see Ms. Zhang continue to be employed in the public service,” wrote Judge Mactavish in her ruling.

Ms. Zhang claimed the government was “vehemently opposed” to her working in the public service and acted in bad faith in its search for a replacement position. She conceded, however, there was no evidence that the PCO interfered in any of these employment competitions.

Two months after her termination, she requested a secondment to another government department where a temporary vacancy arose. That was denied because a secondment would have entitled her to return to her old job at the conclusion of the temporary term.

It is her appeals against the collective bargaining grievance decisions that took her case to the Federal Court.

Last week, Ms. Zhang’s application for judicial review was dismissed and she was ordered to pay $3,500 of the government’s legal costs.

Attempts to reach Ms. Zhang and her lawyer with the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s Collective Bargaining Branch, went unanswered Tuesday afternoon.