OTTAWA—Canada faces “growing threats” to its economic security from a small group of hostile actors bent on stealing trade secrets and technology, according to a 2018 briefing by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.In a briefing to unnamed “stakeholders” in Ontario last year, CSIS said that in addition to traditional spying and cyber security threats, an increasingly complex global environment has increased the threats to Canadian “economic and strategic interests.”“The majority of foreign trade and foreign investment is beneficial to the economy. However, a small number of actors seek to advance their own economic, intelligence and military interests at Canada’s expense,” stated the unclassified briefing, obtained by the Star under access to information law.The document continued that “several key sectors” of the Canadian economy have been “of particular interest to foreign intelligence agencies” — although those specific sectors have been censored from the document.But the rest of the briefing makes clear that high tech, defence and military goods, advanced technology firms, academic and government research, and banking or telecom licenses are of particular concern for Canada’s intelligence agencies.The briefing came a year after Canada’s electronic espionage agency, the Communications Security Establishment, warned Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in a top secret report that hostile foreign actors are coming up with more sophisticated ways of hiding their involvement with — or control over — private business in Canada.The CSIS briefing reiterated that concern, noting foreign states have “increasingly turned away from pursuing the acquisition” or Canadian companies — such as the $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by a Chinese state-owned oil company in 2011.Instead, the spy agency outlined four main “pat ...
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