"Intelligence reports also suggest that China has an estimated 1,000 agents and informants secretly operating in Canada."

Once again Canadians are shocked over the discovery (better defined as realization) that spies exist and operate on Canadian soil. This same reaction was observed immediately after the terrorist plot to assassinate the Prime Minister was uncovered. In the analytical community, more pressure is being placed on the demand for in depth data mining. How else do you report on the "day in the life of a spy" unless you have the skills and tools to dig down several layers of hidden secrets. But the need for "spy catchers" is not as great in the law enforcement or national security community, as it is the commercial sector. Industrial espionage is alive and well and slicing at the heart of leading Canadian industries. Are the private security forces and intelligence analysts equipped to combat these spy games? 

But don’t take my word for it…

by CTV Philip Stavrou CTV Website:  "...Forget about the flashy cars and the femme fatales, the goal of the modern spy is to uncover only one thing -- secrets. Twenty-four countries -- including China, Russia and Iran -- are known by CSIS to have active spy operations  in Canada. Even friendly countries like the U.S., England, France and Israel have spies within Canada's borders. "Since the end of the Cold War we moved from a military confrontation to an economic confrontation so everyone is fighting to try and acquire as much economic leverage as possible internationally -- which translates into political power and influence at the end," former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya told CTV.ca. Now CEO of The Northgate Group, a security intelligence and research firm, Juneau-Katsuya says Canada is a soft target for spies looking to steal economic intelligence -- a problem that is costing tens of billions of dollars each year. "I had pictures of guys stealing information presented to the CEO of a major Canadian company and he refused to look at it," said Juneau-Katsuya. "This is the kind of situation that must change." While the most successful spies are the ones that never get caught, recent events have brought the secret world straight into the public spotlight. At the forefront is last month's poisoning death of ex-KGB Alexander Litvinenko, who some allege was killed by forces within the Kremlin. His signed deathbed letter placed the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin and sparked a flurry of international intrigue. On Canadian soil, officials recently arrested an alleged Russian spy living covertly in the country for more than 10 years. "Russia has been operating for decades in Canada, despite the disappearance in 1990 of the Soviet Union the Russian Federation remained extremely interested in operating in Canada to acquire economic and military secrets," said Juneau-Katsuya, who worked on the KGB file during his time at CSIS..."

A History of Spying (by CTV Philip Stavrou, CTV.ca News)

Spying stretches as far back as the oldest recorded history of mankind, Thomas Boghardt, a historian at Washington's International Spy Museum, told CTV.ca. In the bible, Moses sends 12 spies into the land of Canaan. In the Trojan War, it was a spy who convinced the people of Troy to accept the 'Trojan Horse' filled with Greek warriors. Litvinenko, who was poisoned by Polonium 210, was not the first agent to die in such a manner. In the Roman republic, arsenic was so widely used that in 82 BC a law was created against poisoning, said Boghardt. But, as Litvinenko's death shows, it is the Russians who have carried on the tradition. Under the regime of Joseph Stalin, the dictator unsuccessfully planned to kill Yugoslav leader Josip Tito using a silent spray of pneumonic plague that would be released during a public speech. They also considered a booby-trapped box that would dispense a poisonous gas once it was opened. After Stalin's death in 1953, a Soviet assassin killed two Ukrainians using a spray gun that fired a jet of poison gas from a crushed cyanide vial. Fearing a communist takeover in the Congo in the 1960s, the CIA was also involved in a plot to kill leftist leader Patrice Lumumba with a lethal biological injection. Before they could carry out the mission, Lumumba was killed by a local group. The Americans also considered exploding cigars and poison pills to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro.