The Cold War is over....but there are still snakes lingering in the jungle

U.S. officials have charged 11 people with being deep-cover Russian spies sent to collect information for Moscow, including infiltrating the highest levels of policy-making and obtaining nuclear weapons reseach. At least three of the ten Russian spies arrested in the United States (New Jersey, Virginia, and Boston) posed as Canadian citizens.

It was back in September 1945 that Canada really experienced it's first sensational espionage story. The man was Igor Gouzenko; a Russian cipher clerk. He fled the Soviet Embassy In Ottawa with 109 documents that proved the existence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada. His revelations sent shock waves throughout North America and helped ignite the Cold War.

All the suspects are believed to be agents of the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR), Russia's foreign spy agency. Three of the agents arrested on Sunday had assumed the Canadian identities named Donald Howard Heathfield, Tracey Lee Ann Foley and Patricia Mills.

The multi-year investigation plays out like a Hollywood spy movie. US counter-intelligence officers had planted listening devices in their homes, covertly searched their residences while they were out, and placed video cameras at their meeting places. The agents apparently receieved bags of money from Russia officials in South America and the country's UN headquarters in New York. The illegals communicated with Moscow via radiogrmas- coded bursts of data that sound like Morse code. Messages were also embedded in digital images the spies downloaded from websites.

The case supports what Canadian and other Western intelligence services have been reporting in recent years- that foreign espionage is back on the rise, to levels not seen since the Cold War. In fact, one of the most important and pressing national security issues threatening the future of Canadians is that Canada has become an excellent hunting ground for foreign spies.

Chen Yonglin, a Chinese official who defected to Australia in 2005, estimated that there were at least 1000 Chinese spies in Canada. Furthermore, CSIS recently revealed that 15 to 20 countries are actively engaged in economic espionage against Canada. There are of course what Michel Juneau-Katsuya, the former CSIS chief of Asia-Pacific, calls the "traditional villians" like North Korea, Iran, and Russia, but also "friendly" countries like the US, UK, Israel, and France.

Improving US-Russia relations has been stated by both leaders as a priority. The White House has maintained silence on the matter, even though President Obama likely knew about the arrests while he was lunching with President Dmitri Medvedev at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., on Friday before the two left for Ontario for the G8/G20 summits over the weekend.

Over the years Canada has become a major victim from foreign espinage, in particular, economic espionage. After the Cold War most countries adopted legislation that protected them from economic espionage and strengthened their national intelligence agencies. Canada, on the other hand, debated the value of even having a national intelligence agency and slashed CSIS's budget in half.

Canada must certainly re-asses the way it values national security issues and manages information. The US wants to see a more assertive Canada, especially in regards to border security and immigration. For too long, the Canadian government has played a "see no evil, speak no evil" game when it comes to intelligence and security. Canadians have continuously been deceived that Canada is a safe anf peaceful country, with the exception of a few rooten apples over the years.

The truth is, our lack of legistation to protect Canadians from economic espionage has resulted in Canada losing $10 to $12 billion dollars a year as a result of spying. In addition, front organizations collect money here in Canada and wire it terrorist groups overseas far too easily. CSIS reported that during the 1990s funds from pro-Tiger supports to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were between $1 million to $12 million a year.

It's time for Canadian's to realize we've been duped, we've been had. Canadians should guard their democratic rights and be critical to changes in our criminal legislation or government operations dealing with security. But they must stop being afraid of a national intelligence agency and national police force that is given more funding and new powers . Canada does not have to become the US to better guard its borders and people within them.