In December, the spy agency and the RCMP published an alert to private investigators, saying they could be leveraged by some countries to 'facilitate repression and harassment activities in Canada.'Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is warning private investigators in Canada to guard against working for hostile foreign states such as China to help locate and harass people in this country.
The spy agency and the RCMP published an alert last December to private investigators, saying they could be leveraged by some countries to “facilitate repression and harassment activities in Canada.” Since then, CSIS has been contacting private investigators across Canada, cautioning them to avoid becoming an unwitting tool of transnational repression that seeks to silence targets in Canada or force them to return to their homeland.
“Diaspora communities with roots in authoritarian countries are particularly vulnerable,” the alert said.
CSIS and the Mounties are telling private investigators that authorities in Canada and allied countries have observed multiple examples of their profession being hired to gather personal and “pattern of life” information about opponents of foreign regimes, to locate “purported” fugitives and dissidents, to conduct surveillance on or to harass targets.
Customers approaching private investigators may lie about the reasons for hiring them, alleging the target has committed financial fraud or marital infidelity, CSIS and the RCMP warn in their alert.
“The ultimate aim of the hostile state actor may be to harass, threaten or unlawfully repatriate persons living legally in Canada,” the alert said.
Jolene Johnson, who runs Vancouver-based West Point Investigations Corp., said a CSIS officer approached her on June 17 to discuss concerns that China has been hiring private investigators to track down alleged fugitives who are often critics of Beijing.
“During the course of her visit, she advised me that she was on the China team and they were really concerned about China and their interference in our federal elections,” Ms. Johnson said of the meeting.
She said CSIS told her private investigators are being hired to investigate and locate wealthy Chinese people in Canada, often in the 30-plus age group. This information is then turned over to Chinese authorities, Ms. Johnson said.
Ms. Johnson said the CSIS agent told her the Chinese send over police to enter Canada posing as civilian visitors and they exert pressure on these wealthy Chinese businesspeople. Measures include taking family members in China into custody and then trying to force the Canadian targets to return to China.
Michelle Tessier, former deputy director of operations at CSIS, said China, Iran, Russia and India are increasingly adept at using sophisticated means to hide their involvement while tracking down opponents of their regimes.
A guide to foreign interference and China’s suspected influence in Canada
Often, Ms. Tessier said private investigators are not even aware that they are being used by a hostile state because they may be hired through law firms or third parties.
“A lot of times people are completely unwitting about why they are being asked by their clients to identify somebody and often they say bankruptcy or divorce or what have you,” she said. “It isn’t until they are informed by law enforcement or others that they realize who their client really is.”
CSIS spokesman Eric Balsam said in a statement that the agency tries to raise awareness about national security threats and help various communities fight foreign interference. “When individuals in Canada are subjected to such tactics by foreign states seeking to gather support for or mute criticism of their policies, these activities constitute a threat to Canada’s sovereignty and to the safety of Canadians.”
Derrick Snowdy, president of Diplomat Security International, said CSIS has contacted him in the past about people he was trying to trace. He said China, Iran and Saudi Arabia are known to be countries that hire private investigators to track down people considered critics or enemies of the state.
“They wanted to know if I had been approached by any lawyers in Montreal or Edmonton concerning members of the Persian community in Edmonton or Mississauga dealing with money or trying to locate specific individuals,” he said.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning in April that countries such as China and Iran have resorted to using private investigators to conduct surveillance on dissidents and that several criminal cases have been brought by federal prosecutors involving their use.
The FBI said it hoped to raise awareness of such trends and alert the private investigator sector and state and local law enforcement of these attempts to intimidate certain diaspora communities.
The warning came shortly after federal agents arrested two New York residents for allegedly operating a Chinese “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown district, in what prosecutors said is part of a broader U.S. government crackdown on Beijing’s alleged targeting of dissidents.
The RCMP have been conducting an investigation into facilities in Canada that were used as illegal police stations by China to intimidate or harass people of Chinese origin.
The stations are believed to be among at least 100 operating around the globe in 53 countries, including Canada, Britain and the U.S., according to Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which monitors human-rights abuses in China.
In a report last year, the non-profit said the illegal police stations are part of efforts by China’s regime to “harass, threaten, intimidate and force targets to return to China for persecution.”
With reports from Reuters and Jana G. Pruden