Canadian Security Intelligence Service staff allege rape, bullying in ‘toxic’ BC office

Canadian Security Intelligence Service employees who say the agency’s British Columbia office is a toxic workplace have faced a series of hurdles in speaking out, including a law against identifying themselves or colleagues.

The Canadian Press has published an investigation into claims by the covert officers, including two who say they were sexually assaulted by the same senior colleague while on duty.

A rookie surveillance officer with Canada’s spy agency and another officer decades her senior were tracking a person in British Columbia in the summer of 2019 when they lost sight of their target. She said the senior officer later blamed a communications failure due to a radio dead zone. But the woman said the real reason was her colleague was raping her, having broken off surveillance to drive to a parkade where the alleged attack took place in their Canadian Security Intelligence Service vehicle.

The man, who was supposed to be her mentor and coach, treated his "own needs as more important than doing the job," she said in an interview. She said she was raped by her colleague nine times while at work in CSIS surveillance vehicles between July 2019 and February 2020.