Article found July 10, 2012
Jaffer sought satellite secrets: document
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Ottawa Citizen
Request made after trip to China, investigator says
Former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer sought secret information about Canadian military satellite technology after meeting with state-owned Chinese technology companies in China in 2010, according to a document filed in an Ottawa courthouse Tuesday by private investigator Derrick Snowdy.
Snowdy is being sued by Jaffer's wife, Helena Guergis, for defamation, along with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party of Canada and a number of senior officials who were involved with the expulsion of Guergis from the Conservative caucus in April 2010 in the "busty hookers" scandal.
Guergis resigned from cabinet and was expelled from the Conservative caucus the day after the Toronto Star reported that Jaffer and business associates had partied with escorts at a pricey Toronto restaurant on the night that Jaffer was charged with cocaine possession.
On Wednesday, lawyers for Harper and Guy Giorno, his former chief of staff, will argue that Guergis's lawsuit ought to be thrown out of court.
Snowdy's statement of defence casts light on a February 2010 trip to China that Jaffer made with Hai Shiene Chen, a ChineseCanadian businessman.
Chen "had many connections and ties to state-owned technology companies in the People's Republic of China and that had been anxious to befriend Jaffer and Guergis according to email exchanges," Snowdy writes in the statement of defence.
During the trip, Snowdy writes, Jaffer "was hosted and socialized by Chen's associates representing state-owned technology companies."
On his return, Jaffer wrote to David Pierce, then the director of parliamentary affairs to then industry minister Tony Clement, with de-tailed questions about the Canadian government's "long-term space policy" regarding Radarsat Constellation, a high-technology earth-observation satellite being developed by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates with more than $500 million in federal funding.
On March 16, 2010, Jaffer, using an email address be-longing to Guergis's MP ac-count, wrote that he had "a few questions on behalf of some constituents who are friends of Helena and I."
He then asks, in the email, about the government's plans for the satellite program, including its sensitive "automatic identification system," a military system used to identify vessels in Canadian waters.
"I know these are very technical questions and I have pretty much copied and pasted their request directly to you," Jaffer wrote in the email to Pierce.
In a letter to ethics commissioner Mary Dawson on April 16, 2010, after Guergis left the government, Pierce wrote that he also spoke to Jaffer on March 17, but did not pass on any information about Canada's space program.
In his statement of defence, Snowdy writes that he "under-stood that Guergis had used her office to assist or procure Jaffer's visa to enter China," and suggests that Jaffer may have travelled on the diplomatic passport he received as a spouse of a cabinet minister.
The Globe and Mail has re-ported that Jaffer claimed to have lost that passport when he was asked to return it following his wife's departure from cabinet.
In an interview Tuesday, Snowdy said that he had spoken to "police and intelligence agencies with respect to a number of Mr. Jaffer's business interests and contacts," but declined to be more specific.
Snowdy, who initially came into contact with Jaffer in the course of an investigation in-to accused fraudster Nazim Gillani, Jaffer's former business partner, said he became aware of Jaffer's business contacts in China because Jaffer and Gillani were seeking investors.
"There were firms related to technology, aerospace and computer software and engineering," Snowdy said. "There was a small list circulated among people who were being solicited to sponsor Jaffer's diplomatic mission to China."
Former CSIS agent David Harris, said Tuesday that it would be interesting to know which "constituents" Jaffer was inquiring for.
"In light of the travel to China and the sensitivity of the technology involved, it would be very helpful for Mr. Jaffer to help Canadians to under-stand the complete back-ground, including contacts made and any technology that might have been sought, as well as the specific individuals and interests that could have prompted his inquiry."
In June 2010, CSIS director Richard Fadden warned that China was attempting to influence Canadian politicians, and former CSIS agents have publicly warned that the communist government's agents are engaged in an ongoing, multi-faceted intelligence operations in Canada, driven by interest in Canadian technology and resources.
Harris said that CSIS, Canadian military intelligence and allied intelligence agencies were likely interested in Jaffer's inquiry about Radarsat-2.
"This would be a matter of extreme interest, it would seem to me, to any self-respecting security service," Harris said.
Contacted by telephone Tuesday, Jaffer declined to comment on the allegations in Snowdy's statement of de-fence. Chen could not be reached for comment.
smaher@postmedia.com
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