Soviet Aviation Official Defects, Canadian Says

A Soviet aviation official in Montreal has defected, a top Canadian official said Wednesday, after providing information on security breaches by 17 Soviet diplomats whose expulsion from Canada was announced Tuesday.

The Soviet government retaliated by ousting two Canadian diplomats and telling three others now abroad that they were not welcome to return, the official Tass news agency said in Moscow.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced the action against the 17 Soviet envoys at a news conference concluding the economic summit in Toronto.

He accused the diplomats--eight of whom were expelled last week and another nine who were barred from returning to Canada--of “improper and unacceptable behavior.” The envoys were ousted on charges of industrial espionage.

The Soviets were engaged in a wide-ranging espionage operation in Canada designed to obtain classified information for commercial and military purposes, External Affairs Minister Joe Clark told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Clark said the spy ring posed a threat to national security and included an attempt to penetrate the security service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“We are confident that Canadian security was not compromised,” he told the chamber, adding that investigations are continuing.

He said the 17 envoys were not engaged in a single large conspiracy and that several unrelated Soviet operations were the subject of Canadian investigations.

Clark also said that a Soviet official at the International Civil Aviation Organization headquarters in Montreal, identified as Yuri Smurov, had defected with his wife and daughter after supplying “useful information” to Canadian security officials.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported late Wednesday that some of the Soviets who were expelled had attempted to infiltrate Paramax Electronics, a U.S.-owned military contractor in Montreal that has access to highly classified U.S. naval technology.

The network reported that the technology includes radar, sonar and communications systems.

The New York Times said today that the technology to which Paramax has access included computer-driven equipment that controls shipboard weapons systems.

Paramax, a subsidiary of the Detroit-based Unisys Corp., has a $1-billion contract with the Canadian government as the primary subcontractor on a fleet of six new patrol frigates for the Canadian navy, the newspaper reported.

In Moscow, Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov on Wednesday said the Canadian action was “entirely groundless.”

“Here we have an apparent provocation planned in advance that has nothing to do with the activity of Soviet citizens in Canada,” Gerasimov said. “The provocation of the Canadian authorities will naturally not remain without due reply.”