To Spy Or Not To Spy?

The Canadian government is musing on the need to enact new legislation to empower the creation of an exterior-directed counter-intelligence apparatus. Or, to make it legal for CSIS to initiate and maintain a new section devoted to foreign intelligence gathering. There are, at the very least, foreign agents working within Canada in the interests of espionage, industrial and military and even commercial and civil, whom we are aware have infiltrated our own system.

One such country is China. Its foreign intelligence arms are octopus-like, forging a position for itself anywhere it can gain intelligence useful to its commercial, industrial, military advantage. It is hungry for intelligence and unscrupulous in its search for useful information that other countries would far prefer to keep to themselves. Even while Canada is aware of the presence of Chinese foreign agents in this country, we seek to engage with China on a commercial and trade basis.

Trade is the lifeblood of many countries, China and Canada among them. China because it must continue growing its GDP because of its immense population bringing new workers incessantly on stream, and Canada because of its modest population incapable of absorbing all that the country produces to enlarge our GDP. There is above-board collaboration between China and Canada in the areas of science and technology.

And China invests in Canada as well; it has a huge interest in Alberta's oil sands production. Canada's long-standing and traditional dependence on two-way trade with its largest trading partner and neighbour, the United States, has seen this country often at a disadvantage as the United States pulls its weight unduly to advantage itself. Its primary interest is its own advantage, and it is capable of and not averse to using unfair trade practices even within the NAFTA.

Trade agreements between countries, inclusive of free trade agreements are fraught with danger, since each country is attuned to what best advantages itself. Mediators can be called in to assess a problem and pronounce a mediating opinion, or the partners can go to the World Trade Organization, a time-consuming process that can still be ignored or appealed or held off indefinitely.

When Canada deals with the United States we often get the short end of the stick. But we still know we have a neighbour whose rule of law can be defended upon, and whose values are very akin to our own. We know that, despite differences in orientation and outlook, fundamental values remain intact. We know that politics often drive issues, on both sides of the border. At no time do we feel threatened, however, other than moderately disadvantaged.

When we make agreements with China, another kind of philosophy surfaces. China is answerable to no world body; it makes its own laws and states its own ideological purposes, many of which are repugnant to Canada as far as the recognition of broad and basic human rights is concerned. We do not share a total ethos. And Chinese covert interference in the business of other countries is a grave concern globally.

China has proven itself, through covert cyber-activities undertaken on the government's behalf - which it steadfastly denies having any hand in - to be capable of hacking into the most secret, low-profile-and-protected government agency computer systems. Uncovering data that is meant to be highly restricted. With the potential of disrupting communication systems, and of obtaining state secrets, and corrupting vital files.

Canada may see it as practical and feasible to hold China politically at arm's length, while embracing its hunger for raw materials which Canada possesses in great natural abundance, but we may also discover that it is impossible to de-link the two. The closer the trade ties we forge with China, the more we open ourselves to further infiltration from the activity of determined undercover agents.

Canada needs to be able to play China's game on our own terms, with the use of our own undercover agents. But because our venture, should it be approved, will be a raw, new one, we will have a long way to go before mature professionalism is achieved. Where Canadian spy agents become capable of looking after themselves in a hostile environment can be accomplished.

In that respect, China has the situation well in hand.