Articles by Jim Bronskill

Nov 25 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — Federal security officials have been briefing leaders of major energy and utility firms on cyberthreats, one element of a concerted government effort to underscore the serious risks to the sector. A newly disclosed Public Safety Canada memo re...

Nov 23 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — A jury has declared former RCMP intelligence official Cameron Jay Ortis guilty of disclosing secrets to targets of police interest in violation of the Security of Information Act. The verdict came after weeks of testimony from Ortis and curre...

Nov 16 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday it will not hear the case of four Canadian men held in Syria who argue Ottawa has a legal duty to help them return home.  The mother of one of the men said after the decision that she was not about to ...

Nov 4 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service told employees he stood by the spy agency's handling of sensitive information following a "troubling" leak of classified material, a newly released memo shows.  In a Feb. 24 message to sta...

Oct 21 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — A newly released memo shows federal officials warned last spring that expanding a bilateral refugee pact to the entire Canada-U.S. border would likely fuel smuggling networks and encourage people to seek more dangerous, remote crossing routes....

Oct 19 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The RCMP has told owners to turn in what the force is calling fully automatic military surplus firearms after hundreds were misidentified and allowed into Canada for commercial sale. The Mounties say the registrar of firearms immediately froze...

Oct 17 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The head of Canada's spy service says the way to shield advanced technology from adversaries like China and Russia is to educate researchers and scientists about the risks, not tell them what they should or should not do. Canadian Security Int...

Oct 11 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — When an individual suspected of taking part in the Second World War murder of Jews in western Ukraine applied for admission to Canada in 1951, immigration officials did not follow up with potential witnesses who might have provided crucial det...

Oct 2 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — More than four years after Cameron Jay Ortis was charged with breaching Canada's secrets law, the former RCMP intelligence director is about to get his day in court. Ortis was taken into custody in Ottawa on Sept. 12, 2019 — an arrest that dee...

Sep 30 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The RCMP says it has introduced mandatory security awareness training for employees, one of several changes prompted by the 2019 arrest of a senior civilian member for allegedly leaking classified information. The Mounties say they have also m...

Sep 19 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The Diefenbaker government's 1959 decision to scrap the fabled Avro Arrow was significantly influenced by Canadian intelligence that pointed to a diminishing need for the costly aircraft in the evolving Cold War, says a new research paper base...

Sep 12 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault must unblock Rebel News founder Ezra Levant on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, under the terms of a court order. The order issued by Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn ends an action Le...

Sep 5 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — The RCMP is looking at easing a policy that requires front-line officers and many other employees to refrain from recreational cannabis use for four weeks before duty. A change to the five-year-old policy could bolster recruitment of new offic...

Aug 31 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — A civil society delegation that visited Syrian prison camps is calling on Ottawa to give immediate consular assistance to Canadian detainees and to swiftly repatriate all citizens wishing to return to Canada. The four-person delegation says it...

Aug 28 2023 — Jim Bronskill — The Canadian Press — OTTAWA — Russian intelligence services and police will help cybercriminals operate with "near impunity" against their targets — including Canadians — in coming months, a new federal report predicts.  The assessment released Monday says Russia, and to a...