Inside the CSIS probe that identified a Canadian mole who spied for Moscow
CTV
An investigation by Canada's spy service concluded that money, ego and career frustrations were the likely reasons a veteran RCMP officer passed highly sensitive secrets to Russian intelligence for years, newly disclosed records reveal.
Molehunters determined in the mid-1980s that Gilles Germain Brunet was an agent of the Soviet KGB from the late 1960s well into the 1970s, a Cold War spy saga detailed in documents released to The Canadian Press by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service through the Access to Information Act.
Brunet's betrayal has long been the subject of whispers, chronicled in news articles and books since at least the early 1990s. But until now Canadian intelligence officials have not publicly confirmed his exploits, nor divulged details of the probe that left them convinced he was a mole.
The hard-drinking, high-living Brunet died of an apparent heart attack at age 49 on April 9, 1984, just as investigators were closing in.
The Canadian Press complained to the federal information commissioner's office in 2015 after CSIS initially declined to release the Brunet records under the access law. Six years later, the intelligence service agreed to disclose hundreds of pages, though some of the documents are heavily censored.
