OTTAWA — A new book says Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers urged police in the U.K. not to reveal CSIS’s recruitment of a man who allegedly helped smuggle three British teenagers into Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
In the book to be published Thursday, “The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The untold story of the shadowy international spy network, through its targets, traitors and spies,” author Richard Kerbaj says that in early March 2015, two CSIS officers visited Richard Walton, then head of the counterterrorism command at London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
Kerbaj’s book says the Canadian officers told Walton that the accused smuggler, Mohammed al-Rashed, had been working as an agent for CSIS when arrested by Turkish authorities the previous month — a case that had not yet been made public.
The book says the Canadian intelligence officials were not meeting with Walton to offer an apology, but rather in the hope that any ongoing investigation into the teenagers’ journey to Syria would not force CSIS to be questioned or held accountable.
Allegations about al-Rashed’s involvement with Canadian intelligence made international headlines — and surfaced in the House of Commons — in mid-March 2015.
Asked about Kerbaj’s book, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that in a “particularly dangerous world,” Canada’s intelligence services must be creative and flexible in the fight against terrorism, but he also noted they are bound by strict protocols.
“Our intelligence services are subject to rigorous rules and principles that they need to abide by,” he said.
The government will continue to ensure there is proper oversight and take “further steps” if needed, Trudeau added.
CSIS had no immediate response to questions about the book.
During an interrogation by Turkish intelligence officials, al-Rashed claimed that he had met a regional chief of ISIL while working at a hospital in Raqqa, Syria, the book says.
The chief wanted him to meet jihadists and “jihadi brides” arriving in Turkey from countries such as the United Kingdom and organize their travel arrangements over the border into Syria.
However, al-Rashed was desperate to begin a new life beyond Syria, where he was born, and had been trying to seek political asylum in Canada by submitting an application at the country’s embassy in Jordan, the book says.
“There, Canadian intelligence representatives from CSIS had seen his asylum application as a gateway for his recruitment as an agent.”
From then on, al-Rashed started documenting the details of people he had smuggled for ISIL by photographing their passports on the pretext that he required proof of their identification to buy their transport tickets for domestic travel, according to the book.
“He would then upload the passport images into his laptop and ultimately forward them to his CSIS handler at the embassy in Jordan.”
Following his arrest, Turkish authorities searched his laptop and found a video clip he had filmed of the three British schoolgirls, along with images of maps for ISIL camps in Syria and pictures of passports for at least 20 people, Kerbaj writes.
“Aware that the Turkish authorities would likely leak information about al-Rashed’s arrest to the media, the Canadians tried to get ahead of it to avoid any further embarrassment around the role CSIS had played in running him as an agent,” the book says.
“And it was in that spirit of post-operational manoeuvring that the two CSIS officers had travelled from the Canadian High Commission in London to meet with Walton — before the arrest of their agent in Turkey had been made public.”
The Canadians could not have done anything to stop the three teenagers from travelling into Syria, as by the time al-Rashed’s handler had found out, the schoolgirls had already crossed the border into ISIL territory, Kerbaj writes.
The author says he was told by many intelligence officials that it made no operational sense for the British police to publicize Canada’s involvement in the case because any verification would have reinforced ISIL’s ongoing paranoia and compromised any chances of infiltrating it through new informants.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2022.
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
