The Decibel - Canadian NATO intern accused of spying

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

A Canadian woman has been arrested and accused of spying for a third country during her internship at NATO’s headquarters in Belgium. The woman had a work history with Canadian government agencies and was once found to have committed fraud when trying to apply for a job with the Canada Border Services Agency. This case is now raising questions about how the Canadian government vets its candidates, especially for roles that could have access to sensitive information. Greg Mercer is an investigative journalist with The Globe and one of a team of reporters working on this story. He joins the show to explain what we know so far. Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a tale of international espionage, geopolitical tensions, and an internship, allegedly. A Canadian woman working as a NATO intern in Belgium is accused of spying on behalf of a foreign country and has been arrested. This has raised many questions about what kind of vetting Canada did before she got this job, as well as the job she had previously held at other Canadian government agencies. Greg Mercer is a staff reporter and a member of the Globe's investigative team. He's been looking into this story and is here today to catch you up. I'm Cheryl Sutherland and this is the Decibel from the Globe and Mail. Hi, Greg, thanks for joining me today.

Hey, Cheryl, good to be here. So to start, let's go back to the announcement of the arrest, which happened at the end of July. What did Belgian authorities say about the arrest? They didn't say a whole lot other than that a, someone they described as a Canadian of Chinese origin had been arrested on suspicion of espionage for a third country. There was also a suggestion this was somehow on behalf of a criminal organization. That has not been clarified. But that's essentially what they said is that Canada sent an intern to NATO to NATO's global headquarters in Belgium and that that intern was using that position to spy for another country.

Right. Okay. And so this third country, we did learn later that. that third country is China. That's right. The Belgian authorities have not said that, but Canadian national security officials have told the globe and other outlets that the suspicion is that this person was spying for China, yes. Can you remember a time where a Canadian intern got charged with spying?

No, this is very unusual, very strange. So what made people suspicious of this person? What we know about that is that NATO has its own internal security service, and apparently something that this intern was doing flagged some concerns that she was, according to reports out of Europe, she was hanging around a lot of these natal buildings. She was asking questions about hypothetical security breaches. And apparently she'd been watched for a while. And there was enough concern that eventually this information was passed on to Belgium's military intelligence service.

They looked into her. And a few weeks ago, they raided her. apartment. They searched her apartment, seized her computer, and that's what led to her arrest into these charges. Do we know anything about what they found on this computer yet? We don't. We don't. But it was enough we can presume to lay charges of espionage, which is a serious charge, right? And so we can assume they found something that they believe links her to what we now believe is the Chinese government. And so this intern is a Canadian woman named Bway Zhang, who also goes by Claire Zhang. Greg, what else have you learned about her?

I mean, we know that she worked in different jobs for the federal government for almost a decade. We know that she attended at least three universities in Canada. She, going back to 2016, she studied French at the University of Montreal. She studied and obtained an undergrad degree in economics from York University. She got her master's in computer science and systems engineering from the University of Ottawa. She worked for the Canadian Space Agency. She worked for Statistics Canada. So clearly a very bright person with a very broad interest in terms of the things she studies.

And she seemed to have expressed an interest about a year ago in working for NATO and was approved for that. And she was clear by the Canadian government and wound up in Belgium last July. Okay. So you mentioned that she's worked for a number of Canadian government agencies. Were there any red flags about her behavior at any of these other? jobs? Well, there was. We've since learned that she had tried to cheat the system to get a job almost a decade ago at CBSA. She applied using two different names. And her answers to the application were almost identical. This was flagged. We've learned this through federal court records that

the sort of double application was flagged. She was sent for ethics training. She was was basically scolded and had to promise not to do it again, but it didn't appear to stop her from having a career in the federal civil service and certainly didn't stop her from going to work for NATO. And we learned about these fraudulent applications from a court document. Is that correct? That's right. Yeah, that's right. So the Canada Border Services Agency, according to these federal documents, they had an investigation into her in 2019 that twice she had tried to cheat the system to get a job at CBSA and that, yeah, they called it fraud. It also ordered that she complete an ethics course and had to have a discussion with her manager

within two months of starting the job about this situation. So what I'm trying to understand here, so this court decision around this fraud application, does it suggest a concern around spying? Like, I'm trying to figure out if the allegation is that she was hired and already a spy for China or that she was recruited by China after starting her NATO internship. That's the big question. We have no indication that she was recruited, if indeed she was recruited by China at that time. What that court case is about is that there was some fraud.

There was some deception involved in her trying to work for the federal government. Why she did that is unclear. And even Jody Thomas, Canada's former national security advisor, has made the point. It's entirely plausible that she did no espionage until she arrived at NATO. Right. So I guess what everyone's trying to figure out is, were there signs? were the red flags in her past. Was this one?

It's unclear. And I think that leads to the kind of things people are trying to figure out right now. Okay. So let's do a bit of a recap here, Greg. So before the internship at NATO, Claire Zhang has worked in various government agencies, including Stats Canada, the Standards Council of Canada, the Canadian Space Agency. And then she tried to get a job at the Canadian Border Security Agency, but was denied a job there because she committed fraud in her application by submitting two applications

with slightly different information. Is that right? That's right. Yeah. And when it comes to these two applications, like it could be that she's a person that's just desperate to get a job and maybe submitted two different applications

to get a better chance. It's entirely plausible, right? I mean, none of this stuff in and of itself says that someone is spying, right? It just suggests that she tried to cheat the system to get a job. That's all that it says. Right.

Okay, so let's go back to this NATO internship. What do we know about what kind of work she was doing there? Like, would she have been exposed to sensitive information? It's unclear the information she was working with. We were told she was an expert in artificial intelligence, and that might have been part of the work that she was doing. I mean, we know that she had a master's degree in computer science and had written academic papers on artificial intelligence. Working in the IT department at NATO, it appears like that would have been the type work she was doing. So she arrived last July. It was supposed to be a six-month term, and it

was extended beyond that. So, yeah, we know that she'd been there for roughly a year working at NATO. So it sounds like, you know, she's working in IT, but we don't have a sense of whether or not she had access to sensitive information. Well, I mean, NATO says that this is not compromised their operations, that she did not have access to operational plans. So they are saying that the damage was limited. So I guess that gives us some indication about what she allegedly was and was not doing? It sounds like NATO is not at least concerned about the impacts to their operations, but I guess the concern could be that she could have always overheard things, right? Well, most definitely. I mean, that's the concern at the heart of is, is that if you have someone

who is indeed working for another country that's not a member of NATO that wants to get sensitive information about what's happening inside NATO, even if they're working as an intern, that's a problem to have them inside the building, right? And China has been accused of this stuff in the past. So I think that's the heart of it, even if you're if she was working at a fairly junior level, the question is, what did she have access to? What information was she or was she not relaying and gathering? And that's just the problem. Having a spy in the building, which is alleged, regardless of what their job description is, is a

problem. Has Ms. Zhang said anything about her arrest or these previous issues around applications? So on the question of the CBSA application where she double-dipped and filed two applications to get a job at the CBSA, which she ultimately did not get. In 2023, she said she was just trying to improve her chances. She was just someone who was trying to get a job and do anything she could to get that job. She is not formally responded to these charges

related to the NATO spying allegations, not as of yet. We'll be right back. So, Greg, let's get into the vetting process for Canadian interns that are granted NATO placements. Who is responsible for that? So ultimately, the responsibility falls to the government department that is sending her to NATO. So the RCMP play a role in the criminal background check.

They would have confirmed that she did not have a criminal history. CIS would also play a role in doing the vetting. But ultimately, it's Global Affairs Canada, which is the department that she would have used to apply through to get the internship in NATO that ultimately had to sign off on it. So that's where the responsibility lies. And just to say that CIS is Canada's intelligence agent, What has the RCMP and CIS said about this arrest and the allegations against this woman?

So the RCMP say, look, we don't offer any opinion on the security clearance requests. We just, as requested, we check someone's criminal history. And they said, we did that in this case, that the responsibility lies with the government department. And they're correct in that sense. CIS said it cannot comment on the specifics of this case, but they're trying to reassure Canadians that law enforcement, and intelligence agencies, you know, have a good handle on catching these threats and are able to, you know, that they have a system in place to protect Canada and its partners. I mean, the questions are being raised now is how good is that system and are their flaws in it? But CIS has not commented specifically on Ms. Zhang's case. Yeah, and I feel like the fact that there are these questions about, you know, how good are these systems? That, I mean, that's a fair question. And I'm curious to know, like, what have these allegations meant for Canada's reputation?

It hasn't helped, right? I mean, this relationship with NATO is based on trust and NATO has to believe that its members can be trusted to vet the people that it is sending to work for NATO. So it's going to prompt a lot of questions within Ottawa, within this security establishment about how exactly this happened. You know, opposition MPs have already pounced on this and say, you know, if she indeed did commit fraud when she applied for that job for the Canadian Border Services Agency, how was she still allowed to clear through the security vetting? process. You know, people have said, we need to have a fresh look at the security screen process in this country. Some people said, this is a longstanding problem that you can slip through the cracks, that this is not a very rigorous program. And there's been some mismanagement in the program that allows mistakes like this to happen. So, yeah, I think it's natural that it's going to cause some troubling questions internally within the security establishment about how exactly we can improve this process. I'm kind of, surprised to hear that there are concerns about people slipping through the cracks.

Yeah, that's surprising to me. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if the allegation is true, and let's be clear, this is an allegation, this system did not catch someone who's accused of spying for China, and that is very deeply troubling. Of course, this is one of the reasons why we're now hearing calls for the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. This is a government body made up of elected officials that oversee top security.

clearance questions that oversee issues of national security to formally review this, right? And not just look into the specifics of this case, but have sort of a broader examination of the whole security screening apparatus and making sure that it is that is aligned with Canada's goals and that there are not loopholes or gaps in that process that are allowing people like allegedly Ms. Zhang to slip through. Has anyone from Prime Minister Mark Carnegie's cabinet commented on this? There's not been a whole lot said from cabinet, to be honest. A spokesperson for the public safety minister essentially said, we can't talk about this. It would not confirm whether or not a probe has been launched internally to look at Ms. Zhang's previous roles in Canadian government.

They essentially said that they could not comment because this is an ongoing investigation. So they've said very little publicly. Okay. What about federal agencies or ministries? Have you heard anything from them? Global Affairs, which is the federal department, which ultimately approved Ms. Zhang to go work at NATO for this internship, said that they had asked the RCMP to carry out a formal record check, a police check to see if she had any criminal convictions or police interactions, and she did not. They have not specifically spoken to these allegations other than to confirm that they use these security assessments based on the work of CSIS and the RCMP to make final decisions, whether or not to grant or revoke security clearances. for Canadians. But no, they haven't said much of substance about this case. What about China? Have they commented?

Yeah, China has said a little bit. The Chinese embassy in Canada has not responded, but a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Brussels dismiss these allegations outright. He said that they were unfounded, that they were fabricated suspicions from anonymous sources and said that the embassy would not be commenting further. The reason why he's saying that these are anonymous sources is that, well, he's right, because the Belgian court has not named Ms. Zhang. It is not spoken publicly about any of the specific allegations against her that may or may not involve China. That's coming from other sources, from national security sources in Canada and elsewhere who are confirming this to us. And so the Chinese government's response is that these are anonymous

sources. And there's no official body who was reported this linked to China. And so they're simply saying this is not something we have to respond to. They're not saying anything further. Do we have a sense as to why Belgium is not naming this woman, even though we have sources that are? That's just the way the Belgian court process works. So unlike Canada, where we name people when they are charged in Belgium under the principle of presumed innocence, they do not name people at this stage. So we've had to confirm her name through other men. means. And we've done that through, through government sources in national security in this country and then corroborated that with her own publicly available, her LinkedIn and her Facebook accounts,

which would be able to line up to confirm that it's her. Okay. Very interesting. Could we zoom out for a moment and talk about the relationship between China and NATO? What has that been like? It has, it has had moments of real tension, right? China has long been accused. of using trade policy for political purposes. You know, NATO has issued strategy documents that warned that China poses systemic challenges to NATO security, right, and that China uses a lot of tools, right, from political and economic and military tools to increase its footprint on the world, right? You know, China pushes back and it accuses NATO of hyping up this so-called China threat.

And it says, you know, NATO is guilty of using groundless accusations and provocative rhetoric to accusative things that it says are simply unproven. But it needs to be said that the allegations against and is saying are not the first time that China has been accused of spying on NATO members. And this has come up in the not too distant past. Tell me some about them. Yeah. In February, there were arrests in Greeks and France. of people accused of spying for China, including a colonel in the Greek Air Force. We know that in March, there were reports that China was using fake, linked-in profiles to get

information from people who were working for NATO in the European Union. And for years, there's been an allegation that civil servants and academics and other influential people around the world have been secretly working for Chinese intelligence services. This is an old allegation against China. but the belief is that a great deal of information, very important sense of information and intelligence, has been gathered by China this way, using this network of people who have day jobs that appear to be credible on the surface who are actually secretly gathering information for the Chinese state. And one more thing that's worth noting is that CIS, Canada spy agency, has raised concerns in the past

that China, as well as countries like India, have used international students to engage in espionage. And the allegation, the allegation is concerning given that Ms. Zhang has studied at multiple universities in Canada, especially around technologies such as AI, which can be economically and sensitive and have security implications for us. So, yeah, it's not just other countries saying this. I mean, CIS has raised concerns about this trend of China allegedly using international students as well. We should say also that Ms. Sang is actually Canadian Chinese, though. She's a Canadian citizen. That's right. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Hypothetically, what would China gain from spying on NATO?

I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, NATO's global headquarters is a pretty important place in terms of the decisions that it's making around the world. I mean, you can understand why a country that is not part of NATO that has been hostile at times to NATO would want to understand how NATO operates. the decisions that NATO was making, wants to understand NATO's systems and its processes. So for a country that does seem to have a track record of using espionage to further its global agenda, NATO would be a sensible target. NATO's global headquarters, it's called Shape. This is where they make major decisions around deploying troops and how to use weapons. And they, this also spearheads, you know, NATO's cybersecurity efforts. These are things that are highly sensitive and,

require high level of security clearance. So people who were there who are asking questions, you would assume would very quickly raise suspicions. So just to end here, Greg, let's come back to Ms. Seng's case because it sounds like there are still a lot of unknowns here. And some things may come to light as the court proceedings continue. Where are we in that process? Well, she is still detained. She, and that detention has been extended for a month. She has not said anything publicly yet about these charges. And we, I think all of us are waiting for the next step in the process. I mean, eventually this will make it to trial and we hopefully will learn more at that time. But so far, we have to stay tuned. All right, Greg, we'll leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me, Cheryl. That was Greg Mercer, a staff reporter and a member of the Globe's investigative team. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Our producers are, Madeline. White, Rachel Levy McLaughlin, and Mahal Stein. Our editor is David Crosby. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening.