{"id":10641,"date":"2026-08-13T21:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T21:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10641\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T21:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T21:14:09","slug":"conservatives-bloc-call-for-emergency-meeting-to-discuss-nato-intern-accused-of-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10641\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives, Bloc call for emergency meeting to discuss NATO intern accused of spying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Claire (Biwei) Zhang, a Canadian NATO intern, was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Conservative and Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois members of the House of Commons public safety and national security committee are calling for an emergency meeting to discuss spying allegations involving a former Canadian NATO intern in Belgium.<\/p>\n

Frank Caputo, the Conservative public safety critic, said MPs need to discuss the \u201cserious questions\u201d the case raises about \u201cCanada\u2019s national security screening processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public safety minister has said that he will investigate Canada\u2019s security screening processes and \u2018get to the bottom of what happened.\u2019 Canadians deserve to know what happened, and Parliament has a responsibility to demand those answers,\u201d Caputo said in a media statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about partisan politics. It is about protecting Canadians, safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining the trust of our NATO allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspect, described as a Canadian national of Chinese origin, faces charges related to espionage and participation in a criminal organization after she was arrested last month.<\/p>\n

A source identified the woman as Biwei Zhang (who also uses the name Claire Zhang), a former Canadian civil servant.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said<\/a> only that Ms. Zhang was suspected of \u201cspying on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization.\u201d On July 30, a national security source told The Globe<\/a> that the country in question was China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What we know so far about the Canadian NATO intern accused of spying for China<\/a><\/p>\n

The suspect worked as an intern at NATO\u2019s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium.<\/p>\n

The suspect is being held by Belgian authorities on pretrial detention but is appealing this decision.<\/p>\n

The Belgian federal prosecutor\u2019s office has said it does not disclose the identities of suspects in ongoing investigations, citing the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

A RCMP spokesperson previously told The Canadian Press the Mounties will continue to offer support to their international law enforcement partners.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives and Bloc have a combined five votes on the national security committee and the Liberals hold six, giving the governing party a majority say over whether the committee will investigate the matter.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With reports from The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Claire (Biwei) Zhang, a Canadian NATO intern, was arrested last month on suspicion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[107,90,108,80,78,109,46,77,97,98,93,79,76,103,105,102,96,88,120,81,82,95,91,92,85,110,86,115,116,118,113,117,111,114,83,100,101,50,99,112,89,104,106,94,87,84,119],"class_list":["post-10641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}