Canada throws out 'Russian spy'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/6211267.stm

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Canada has deported a man accused of assuming a false identity over a 10-year period to spy for Russia.

The man, who took the name Paul William Hampel, left Canada on Tuesday morning following an earlier deportation order.

Canada's intelligence agency said in court papers it believed the man to be part of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the successor to the KGB.

The man had been arrested trying to leave through Montreal airport on 14 November with a fake birth certificate.

'These things go on'

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said: "Individuals who do not respect our laws and threaten the safety of our communities are not welcome in Canada."

The man confessed to being a Russian citizen in court this month. The judge in return allowed his true identity to remain secret.

Mr Day said Russia had provided papers to allow the man to return.

But Mr Day said the affair would not harm bilateral relations.

"We understand that these things go on in the world, the Russians understand that also," he said.

Earlier court papers had said the man obtained three Canadian passports by fraudulent means.

When he was arrested he carrying more than $5,000 in various currencies and three mobile phones.

The spying charges were the first since 1996, when Canada expelled Dmitriy Olshevsky and Yelena Olshevskaya, who had taken the names of Ian and Laurie Lambert to work as sleeper Foreign Intelligence Service agents.