Former Ottawa-Based Public Servant Accused of Copying Thousands of Government Files for China: Report

Retired public servant Dennis Lu has been charged after allegedly copying more than 2,000 government documents that prosecutors say he intended to provide to contacts in China.

Lu, 65, worked for nearly three decades as a researcher at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) in Ottawa before taking a leave in 2023 to travel to Taiwan and China. He was fired in August 2023.

Roughly a year later, he was arrested and charged with one count of breach of trust and two counts of unauthorized use of a computer by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), according to court records obtained by CBC News.

He is scheduled to stand trial next January at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa.

Allegations

Lu worked at NRCan’s Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology, researching carbon capture and clean energy technology.

About a month after going on leave in 2023, Lu told his manager he was planning to retire in August that year.

Lu allegedly forwarded approximately 2,600 emails from his government email account to his personal email account while he was living in China.

Natural Resources Canada blocked Lu’s access to its servers and his work email in June 2023. When he came back to Canada in late June, however, he was granted access to process his retirement forms.

Prosecutors allege that Lu transferred 2,414 documents from a shared NRCan server onto an electronic device on July 7, 2023, then copied an additional 188 documents to another device a month later.

NRCan officials questioned Lu about the documents on Aug. 17, 2023. They contacted the RCMP the same day to report the findings of their investigation into Lu, according to court documents.

Lu was fired later that week and arrested a year later by INSET, an RCMP-led unit comprised of intelligence agents, government partners, and police, who investigate matters of national security.

Lu had only recently returned to Ottawa in the summer of 2024 after spending most of the first year after his dismissal in China.

He was released after agreeing to not leave Ontario, not apply for a passport or other travel documents, and to obey other release conditions.

CSIS Raised Concerns

Court records indicate that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) contacted NRCan at least three times between 2000 and 2021 regarding Lu. NRCan started its own investigation in January of 2023, resulting in the monitoring of Lu’s workplace computer.

Court documents don’t indicate that Lu provided the downloaded material to anyone.

However, the Crown alleges that electronic devices found during a sweep of Lu’s home in Ottawa turned up proof of employment and affiliations with Chinese companies, researchers, and academic institutions, in violation of internal policies at NRCan.

The Crown also states that there is evidence Lu intended to provide the downloaded documents to contacts in China.

The allegations against Lu have not been proven in court.

Defence

Lu’s lawyers argue that NRCan became an extension of law enforcement when it started to monitor him.

They argue that NRCan’s monitoring of Lu should be treated like a police investigation, subject to Canadian Charter protections against unreasonable searches.

The defence also argues that Lu was authorized to access material on NRCan’s shared departmental drive as it was not password-protected. They further argue that Lu was collaborating with Chinese researchers on behalf of his department at NRC.

Lu’s lawyers say that he told NRCan before departing for Taiwan and China in February 2023 that he intended to continue collaborating on publications with Chinese researchers during his leave of absence. The Crown disputes that claim.

Prosecutors further state that Lu did not have an expectation of privacy while making use of government computer systems and cited a 2023 report for CSIS saying that China “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.”