OTTAWA, Ont. - An Ontario family caught up in a global espionage drama wants answers from the Canadian government amid fears they'll now have trouble travelling abroad -- or might even get a late-night visit from Russian spies.
Brampton resident David Heathfield said Tuesday he'd like to hear from authorities in Ottawa after his dead brother's name turned up in U.S. court files about an alleged spy ring run from Moscow.
The FBI says a Boston-area man accused of being a Russian agent assumed the identity of Donald Heathfield, who died at six weeks of age in Montreal in 1963.
Donald Heathfield and his wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, a real estate agent who also claimed to be Canadian, are among 11 people arrested as part of the supposed spy network.
He was apparently the developer of Future Map, a software system, and served as a principal with the Massachusetts office of Global Partners Inc., a business-services firm.
In searching a Cambridge, Mass., safe-deposit box, investigators found a photocopy of a birth certificate in the name of Donald Howard Graham Heathfield. An FBI obituary hunt revealed the man to be the deceased son of Howard William Heathfield of Burlington, Ont., who died in June 2005 at age 70.
Russian foreign intelligence agents of the SVR -- and their predecessors with the infamous Soviet KGB -- have long taken up the identities of people who passed on as infants as a means of establishing new covers abroad.
But all that was little comfort Tuesday for David Heathfield, who assumes the Russians singled out his brother's 47-year-old death notice in a Montreal newspaper.
"How did they get it? And how do we protect ourselves in the future? What implications is this going to have on us?" he asked.
"Are we going to be able to travel abroad, go to the States anymore? Or are we going to be pulled over all the time, each time the Heathfield name pops up ... and Russian spies come knocking on our door now or something?"
Canadian officials haven't contacted him -- and they've said next to nothing publicly about the unfolding cloak-and-dagger tale.
Foreign Affairs officials initially referred calls on the case to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews' office. Toews then steered inquiries back to Foreign Affairs.
"This is an American investigation. We continue to work with our allies on the issue," Foreign Affairs said Tuesday in a statement. "As the investigation is ongoing we have no comment at this time."
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service declined to comment.
Gary Doer, Canada's ambassador to the United States, said, "I think that the people at CSIS are going to do their due diligence about the allegations."
Alan Cairns, a spokesman for Ontario's Ministry of Government Services, responsible for birth certificates, said the agency would co-operate with any investigation.
A spokesman for York University in Toronto confirmed that a Donald Graham Heathfield graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in June 1995, indicating the accused man once lived in Canada.
Court papers filed in the case say two others among the 11 taken into custody -- Patricia Mills and Christopher Metsos -- also claimed to be Canadian.
Metsos, arrested Tuesday in Cyprus, reportedly had a Canadian passport, begging the question of whether it was genuine.
Passport Canada officials were unavailable.
The Russian Embassy in Ottawa had no comment, and there was no indication from Foreign Affairs that any of the country's diplomats were summoned to explain the alleged use of Canadian documents.
The FBI says Moscow instructed Heathfield and Foley to gather information on U.S. foreign policy in such areas as terrorist use of the Internet, military affairs and Central Asia.
American officials allege they communicated with headquarters through special computer software that hides secret messages in images, and sent coded bursts of data through a radio transmitter.
"I couldn't believe it. It's out of a Tom Clancy book. It's really wild stuff," said Jay Gronlund, a business associate of Donald Heathfield.
Gronlund worked with the alleged spy through Global Partners, which he described as "a loose group of consultants" that offers training and development for businesses.
"I found him to be a real pro, a sweetheart of a guy. He's very supportive. He has new ideas. He's very smart."
Gronlund was under the impression Heathfield was French-Canadian and had lived in Montreal, and may have spent his early years growing up in Paris.
Typically, Heathfield would not have been privy to secret information if he was conducting training with the head of a company's sales department, said Gronlund.
"To imply that his intention was to use these multinational companies as a gateway to find proprietary information ... I never really witnessed it."
