The Canadian soldier who pleaded guilty this month to spying was leaking secrets to Russia, sending classified data about Canada as well as the United States, the US ambassador in Ottawa said Sunday.
So far, the Canadian government has refrained from revealing the identity of “the foreign entity” to whom Jeffrey Paul Delisle, a naval intelligence officer, passed the classified information. But Canadian media had previously reported the secrets were being sent to Russia.
In an interview with Canadian television network CTV, US Ambassador David Jacobson said Delisle “pleaded guilty to selling secrets of the United States and secrets of Canada to the Russians. That is obviously not good.”
He refused to specify the nature of the information, saying only that “there was a lot of highly classified material.”
“We’ve had these problems in the past and we want to make sure and the Canadians want to make sure that nothing like this is going to happen again,” Jacobson emphasized.
“We have confidence that Canada is a trusted ally and that we can continue to work with them,” he added.
Delisle, 40, was an analyst at the HMCS Trinity in Halifax, a naval intelligence center that processes data from satellites and drone surveillance from across the north Atlantic.
While working there, he had access to information from several NATO countries, including the United States, Australia and Britain.
On Moscow’s payroll since 2007, Delisle saved classified information on a miniature hard drive and sent it once a month to Russia, according to public broadcaster CBC, which added that, for his efforts, he was paid around $3,000 a month.
Convictions under the security act carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
US diplomat confirms Canada spy was on Russia payroll
