Postal workers call for inquiry after new book reveals how Canadian spies broke the law, cheated the taxpayer, illegally snooped on union leaders and stole the mail

By Asian Pacific News Service

Canadian spies broke the law, cheated the taxpayer, illegally snooped on union leaders and stole the mail says a startling new book that exposes a litany of abuses and bungles by Canada's secret agents.

The controversial book entitled 'Covert Entry' with its explosive allegations has triggered calls for a public inquiry by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers into the illegal activities by the country's spy agency - the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or CSIS.

The union has also filed a formal complaint with the federal privacy watchdog over allegations the intelligence agency spied on mail workers.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers wants an independent probe of the "appalling violations" allegedly committed by the post office and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the 1990s, said Deborah Bourque, the union's National President.

"This new information confirms longstanding allegations of appalling violations of rights and freedoms by a powerful and apparently unaccountable agency," she said. "All Canadians should be concerned that their civil liberties and democratic rights are at risk."

'Covert Entry' by former Globe and Mail journalist, Andrew Mitrovica details claims of spying by former intelligence operative John Farrell.

Farrell, now a Toronto teacher, alleges he broke into the cars of union leaders and sifted through their garbage in search of embarrassing information.

The book among other things, chronicles:

• statements by Farrell, who says he assisted the spy service by stealing special postal keys, illegally intercepting mail and snooping on a postal worker suspected of leaking information to the media.
• claims that many agents abused their mileage claims, did not pay taxes and that senior CSIS officials covered up accidents involving agency vehicles.
• an incident where a CSIS officer identified as Linda Smith assigned to watch Russian spies subleted to her sister an apartment hired for the sensitive operation. Smith, who is now an investigator with the B.C. Securities Commission, the book says, also complained that other CSIS agents were using binoculars to watch her undress in the apartment.
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• details of a case where the daughter of a senior CSIS officer lived for almost a year in a Toronto apartment rented for CSIS by an operative who had been told the home would be used as an observation post in a covert operation.
• reports by the same operative that he smuggled liquor into Canada from the United States for the wedding reception of a veteran intelligence officer's daughter.
• inside information that for years, a veteran officer has operated a travel agency, called For Members Only, catering to CSIS members and police officers. The book says the officer, a member of the CSIS special operations unit, routinely takes telephone inquiries to arrange vacation deals during working hours.
• an incident where a building contractor, a friend of senior CSIS officers, was put on the service's payroll to help cover the cost of renovating the homes of intelligence service members. The contractor accompanied operatives on at least one secret operation.
• details of a serious security breach in which 30 surveillance files containing secretinformation about suspected terrorists and spies ended up in the hands of a Mafia associate in the early 1990s.
• the story of two Russian spies, deported in disgrace six years ago, who now want to return to Canada because each had married a lover from the Toronto area. In another incident after the Russian operation was concluded, a female CSIS officer was seen with a pair of new rollerblades belonging to the Russian spies. She claimed to have helped herself to a souvenir. The rollerblades were later returned to the Russian Embassy.
• new information that CSIS paid US$1 million to Anatoli Gayduk, a disgruntled diplomat who was actually a KGB major operating out of the country's mission in Ottawa. He in turn gave extensive debriefings on Russian overseas operations to CSIS and it's sister spy agencies in the U.S., Britain and Australia.

Much of the book is devoted to Farrell, a juvenile offender well known in Ontario for blowing the whistle on sexual offences at a prison.

Farrell claims he compiled files on 15 to 20 key union members in the Toronto area, dossiers that included details about their private lives, families and friends gleaned from banking, credit, telephone and court records.

Farrell, now 35, also admits breaking into three cars outside a Toronto-area postal plant as part of the information-gathering efforts.

He later became involved in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's mail-intercept program, which involved temporarily removing letters of interest from the stream of correspondence flowing through processing plants.

Farrell claims he helped CSIS intercept mail on a number of occasions without the required court-issued warrants and that he stole special Crown keys, which open apartment building doors and mailboxes, for use in secret operations.

Canada Post's quest for intelligence about union leaders was simply insatiable leading agents to open mail, search through garbage bags and break into private cars - all activities in violation of the Privacy Act, said Mitrovica, the author.

The postal union has also written Canada Post president Andre Ouellet, saying "there can be no sweeping of these revelations under a corporate rug." Ouellet has agreed to meet with the union but but insists Canada Post knows nothing about the allegations and would not condone such activity. A Canada Post spokesman has said the allegations, some of which were first raised two years ago, had not been substantiated.

Anthony Polci, the spokesperson for federal Cabinet minister David Collenette , who is responsible to Parliament for Canada Post, said "no action is being considered."

Nicole Currier, a spokesperson for CSIS, told a newspaper reporter "we'll continue to deny that any employee broke the law or instructed anyone else to break the law."

Currier said "the allegations are sweeping and from our perspective are quite outrageous," adding some of the claims in the book were "absurd." Government insiders say the book is forcing a quiet relook at the way the Canadian spy agency conducts itself and its level of accountability.

"Neither the government or CSIS is going to take any public action as a result of the book..it will be a deny, deny, deny scenario but there are some questions being asked behind the scenes," said an Ottawa area MP.

Mitrovica, the author, who based his book on interviews with 89 people, including current and retired intelligence officers, as well as on numerous documents. is no stranger to controversy.

He has long been a thorn in the side of Canada's spy agency, which has not hesitated to discredit his work both publicly and privately.

He left the Globe and Mail's investigative team in less than amicable circumstances after blowing up the Stockwell Day spy-for-hire incident. Those who know Mitrovica and his work have differing views about the author.

"He burns his sources and has used less than credible people to base his work on," said a former intelligence officer.

Fabian Dawson, a news editor with the Vancouver Province described Mitrovica as a "courageous journalist with an in-built shit kicking device."

"The bottom line here is that Andrew has named names and explains who has been giving orders for the illegal activities. If CSIS wants to retain the public trust then it should comment on the specific allegations instead of continuing with its anemic denials."