Successful engineer facing possible life sentence for allegedly trying to pass Canada’s secrets to China by Stewart Bell

In the apartment that Qing Quentin Huang once shared with his son in Burnaby, B.C., the sign on the wall read: Procrastination is the thief of time.



Ian Smith / Postmedia News file

Like many immigrants, Mr. Huang was driven to succeed. An engineer, he earned a master’s degree, was working toward a PhD and had started his own consulting company.

He also had high expectations for his son. Even when the boy entered university at age 16, Mr. Huang lamented that, “He seldom studies unless I push him.”

But for all his intelligence and restless ambition, Mr. Huang is now facing a possible life sentence after he was arrested on the weekend for allegedly trying to pass secrets to China.

Mr. Huang, 53, was employed as an engineer at Lloyd’s Register Canada Ltd., which had been subcontracted to work on the Canadian government’s Arctic patrol vessel project.

According to sources familiar with the case, he allegedly approached the Chinese embassy in Ottawa on Monday, Nov. 25. That prompted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to notify the RCMP on Thursday. A formal investigation was launched the next day.

An undercover operation unfolded in Toronto on Saturday, Nov. 30, and police allegedly caught Mr. Huang discussing relaying sensitive documents. He was arrested that afternoon in Burlington, Ont.



Peter J. Thompson/National Post

He has been charged under the Security of Information Act with two counts of attempting to “communicate to a foreign entity” information that the Canadian government “is taking measures to safeguard.”

The Chinese government denied Monday that Mr. Huang had furnished any documents. “The remarks saying that a Canadian-Chinese male provided the Chinese government with confidential information is totally groundless,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, told reporters.

But Mr. Huang has not been accused of passing government secrets to China. Rather, he has been charged with attempting to do so. Police believe they thwarted the plot before any secrets were leaked.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s spokesman, Rick Roth, declined to comment on how Canada was dealing with China on the issue. “We don’t discuss matters of national security,” he said. “As this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment.”

A native of China, Mr. Huang moved to Sweden in the late 1980s to study mathematics, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. He later moved to Singapore to work as a naval architect and engineer.
After divorcing his wife, he and his son immigrated to Canada in 2001. They lived initially in Port Alberni, B.C., where Mr. Huang worked in shipbuilding.

[related_links /]

In 2004, when his son, who had skipped two grades, was accepted at Simon Fraser University, Mr. Huang joined him in residence on the grounds the teenager was too young to live alone.

Mr. Huang was living in Waterdown, Ont., and working at Lloyd’s in nearby Burlington when the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team began its investigation, called Project Seascape.

Bud Streeter, president of Lloyd’s, said Mr. Huang was not involved in the patrol vessel project because he did not have a security clearance. As a result he did not have access to classified information, he added.

Several sources said Mr. Huang was unhappy about being excluded from the prestigious project. Police said he had no known accomplices and this was not a case of “state-sponsored” espionage.

Ray Boisvert, a former senior CSIS official, said revenge and greed were usually factors among those who turned to espionage. He said it was also often “about divided loyalties or lack of identity with his society, organization or nation.”

Christian Leuprecht, a Queen’s University political science professor, said the arrest would serve as a warning. “CSIS’s vigilance and the RCMP’s arrest will have an important deterrent effect, as they significantly raise the costs and stakes of those who may be tempted to pass sensitive information.”

Mr. Huang has been suspended by Lloyd’s and will be fired if convicted, Mr. Streeter said. The company is co-operating with police. Mr. Huang was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.