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A former federal scientist in an alleged foreign interference case is accused of copying more than 2,000 documents off a shared departmental server to share with China as his lifelong career was nearing its end, CBC News has learned.
Dennis Lu faces trial in Ottawa next year. He researched clean energy with Natural Resource Canada’s Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology for decades, specializing in carbon capture and decarbonization. He was fired during the week of his scheduled retirement in August 2023.
The 65-year-old is charged under the Criminal Code with two counts of unauthorized use of a computer and one count of breach of trust relating to his federal duties.
The alleged breach dates from the day Lu began a leave of absence to travel to Taiwan and China in 2023 to the date of his arrest in 2024. He had recently returned to Canada after living in China for about a year following his departure from Natural Resources Canada.
Courthouse records prepared by the Crown and defence, obtained by CBC News, show there is no evidence of Lu actually sharing the documents he downloaded.
Instead the Crown alleges that Lu’s devices, seized during the execution of a search warrant at his Ottawa home, contain evidence of questionable affiliations and employment with Chinese companies, universities and academics against Natural Resources Canada’s internal rules — and that Lu intended to share the documents with China, the records state.
The allegations against Lu are unproven.
Courthouse records state that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, seen here in Ottawa in 2013, briefed Natural Resources Canada about Lu at least three times starting in 2000. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
CSIS briefed Lu’s employer about him
The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) briefed Natural Resources Canada about Lu at least three times between 2000 and 2021, the court records show.
The last CSIS briefing was made to Natural Resources Canada’s chief of security in February 2021. That prompted an internal investigation in January 2023 to monitor, search and seize information from Lu’s computer using “specific word phrases” to see if any of Lu’s conduct was “actionable” and to “determine the credibility of the CSIS flags,” the records state.
In February 2023 Lu took a leave of absence to travel and the following month he told his manager that he intended to retire in August that year, according to the records.
It’s alleged that Lu sent nearly 2,000 emails from his work email account to his personal email account while he was in China, the records state.
Natural Resources Canada cut Lu’s access to his work email and its servers in early June 2023, and when Lu returned to Canada at the end of that month, he asked about it. A manager ordered Lu’s access reinstated so his retirement could be processed.
Arrested, charged by Ottawa INSET
On July 7, 2023, Lu allegedly copied 2,414 documents from a Natural Resources Canada shared server onto a device, and on Aug. 9, 2023, a further 188 documents from the shared drive onto a separate device.
Natural Resource Canada officials interviewed Lu about the copied documents on Aug. 17, 2023. That same day, the department told the RCMP about the findings of its internal investigation into Lu, the records state.
A year later, he was arrested and charged by members of Ottawa INSET, an RCMP-led team of law enforcement and intelligence partners that handles threats to national security. He had just returned to Ottawa after spending his first year of retirement living in China.
Lu was released from custody after he and a surety promised to pay $10,000 each if Lu leaves Ontario, applies for a passport or any other travel permits or documents, or violates any other release conditions.
Lu had expectation of privacy at work: defence
Arguments and allegations that defence lawyers Reem Zaia and Michael Nesbitt are making include the following:
- Natural Resource Canada was acting as an agent of the state — an extension of law enforcement — from the moment it began surveilling Lu, and that Lu had an expectation of privacy as an employee, the records state.
- The department’s shared drive wasn’t password-protected, Lu had authorized access to it, and employees at the department routinely use USBs to take work home and work.
- The department has hired and collaborated with foreign nationals in the past, including from China. They say Lu had been working on publications with the Chinese on the department’s behalf, and that before he left, he told Natural Resources Canada that he intended to finish them.
Lu is scheduled to stand trial at the Ottawa Courthouse in January. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
Arguments and allegations made by assistant Crown attorney Tim Radcliffe include:
- The federal government is highly regulated and “increasingly security-sensitive given the risks posed by aggressive threat actors” including China, and that a reasonable person wouldn’t agree that Lu should have expected privacy at work.
- The Communication Security Establishment’s National Cyber Threat Assessment for 2025-26 says China’s “expansive and aggressive cyber program has global cyber surveillance, espionage, and attack capabilities and is the most comprehensive cyber security threat facing Canada today … and have compromised and maintained access to multiple government networks over the past five years, collecting communications and other valuable information.”
- A 2023 CSIS report says China “has repeatedly shown that it is willing to use clandestine and deceptive means to acquire intellectual property and advanced technologies from Canada and its allies … and is actively attempting to recruit Canadians with desirable expertise through social media platforms and talent recruitment firms.”
- Lu did not tell Natural Resources Canada before he left that he intended to complete publications with Chinese academics, and that dealings with Chinese academics and universities were approached with caution at the department.
Lu’s jury trial in Ottawa’s Superior Court is scheduled for January.