Chinese spies operate in Canada

March 24, 2011  
 
OTTAWA - There are spies from China operating in Canada, members of the Chinese-Canadian community told QMI Agency Thursday.
"We came here for freedom and find ourselves still under the oppression of the Chinese regime," said Lucy Zhou, spokesman for a Falun Gong group in Ottawa.
"What has happened in the past 10 years is that we have been victimized by the Chinese regime, including by the Chinese Embassy and missions here in Canada." Zhou, who came to Canada as a student in 1989, says China regularly spies on Chinese citizens in Canada.
"Going back to China, people are stopped right away and interrogated and they (Chinese officials) know everything that happens here in Canada," Zhou said.
The allegations come a day after a Commons committee tabled a report calling for Canada's top spy to be fired and an apology offered to the Chinese community.
Liberal, Bloc and NDP members of the Commons public safety committee submitted the report to Parliament Wednesday, calling for Richard Fadden, the head of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), to be fired.
Conservative members of the committee submitted their own report defending Fadden.
Security experts contacted by QMI Agency have consistently said China is simply one of many countries spying or trying to influence politicians in Canada.
A former employee at China's embassy in Sydney, Australia, who defected in 2005, has testified that there are more than 1,000 Chinese spies operating in Canada.
Recently, the computer systems of the foreign affairs department and the Treasury Board, which deals with the federal government's financial plans, were hacked by computers based in China.
In March, there was a similar attack on the computer system of France's finance ministry. According to officials the hackers, also based in China, were looking for information on international economic matters, including the G20.