明报/曾经在联邦枢密院工作的中国移民张海燕，因国家安全理由而被解雇，其后转到较为次要的联邦服务部工作，不过，曾在中国新华社当过记者的张海燕，最终还是因国家安全理由而再被解雇。
根据《环球邮报》报道，张海燕(Haiyan Zhang音译)是因为“身分不可靠”而被联邦服务部(Service Canada)开除的。
这已是张海燕第二次被联邦政府部门解雇。今次是服务部再次怀疑张海燕对国家安全构成威胁时，聘请了前皇家骑警总监，现时转任顾问的默里(Phil Murray)对张进行一个“威胁及风险评估”后，且经过一有13个步骤的而认为其身分不可靠的程序后，解除其职务。
张海燕将会继续向公共雇员劳工关系局申诉。
1963年出生的张海燕曾任新华社的国外通讯员，曾被派驻中东，移民加国后，她念了个商管硕士，做了几年加国公司在中国的代表，之后被猎头公司看中，2003年进入了联邦政府中枢的枢密院任分析员。
其后的安全背景调查发现她曾任新华社记者，她就被停职接受调查，她不服，告上劳工关系局，其后判她可到不涉及国家机密的联邦部门工作。
OTTAWA’S INNER WORKINGS
Espionage fears cost woman second civil-service job
Documents reveal government agency’s 13-step plan to dismiss Canadian who once worked for China’s state-run news agency
COLIN FREEZE
December 22, 2008
A Canadian civil servant has been removed from her job inside the federal bureaucracy amid concerns about Chinese espionage.
In 2003, Haiyan Zhang was denied “Top Secret” status and escorted from her job as an analyst in the Privy Council Office, the nerve centre of the Canadian government.
Then, a few months ago, after having grieved her way into a less sensitive job, she was stripped of her “reliability status” – the bare minimum – and sent packing from Service Canada, a relatively obscure marketing agency on the periphery of the public service.
Internal memos obtained by The Globe and Mail include references to a secret investigation by a retired RCMP commissioner, as well as a 13-step federal action plan to remove her from the civil service once and for all.
Five years ago, a federal civil servant wooed Ms. Zhang, saying the PCO was perfect for her. But after a closer look during a security screening, intelligence officials fixated on the fact that she had once worked as a reporter for Xinhua, Beijing’s state-run news service.
Ms. Zhang, a Chinese-Canadian who espouses love of her new homeland and deep-seated contempt for communists, had run smack into growing federal fears about Chinese spies operating in Canada. Never openly accused of any act of wrongdoing, she was not so much fired as left in perpetual limbo. Civil servants can’t go to work without a security clearance. She has none.
After spending years on paid leave awaiting the outcome of security screening investigations, Ms. Zhang continues her struggle today. “Matters related to the termination are still before the [Public Service Labour Relations] board,” said her lawyer, Andrew Raven.
Memos released under freedom of information laws (and now posted on The Globe’s website) show just how officials worked to rid themselves of Ms. Zhang.
In 2006, long after she had been ousted from the PCO, she was found to still be entitled to a federal job, according to a labour board adjudicator. Branded untrustworthy in terms of handling secrets, Ms. Zhang could be parked in an agency that had none to speak of.
Enter Service Canada, a federal marketing agency whose own internal polling shows it remains rather obscure. Despite its successful 1-800-OCANADA phone line for advice on getting disability cheques and the like, the agency has little public profile.
Service Canada hired Ms. Zhang, seemingly unaware of her past. When security concerns did re-emerge, officials went into panic mode. “We were outclassed by the threat,” reads one briefing note. In late 2006, after a few weeks of work, she was told to go home and once more await a review of her reliability status.
Draft findings of the inquiry were completed within months, but, after talks with senior managers, officials went back to the drawing board to “refocus, examine threats, identify risks, seek external advice,” according to a memo.
That process took all of 2007. Service Canada even hired Phil Murray, an RCMP commissioner turned consultant, for a “Threat and Risk Assessment.” It remains secret but passages show he was to look at “vulnerabilities,” including whether unspecified “risks could be reasonably mitigated.”
In February, 2008, Service Canada was charting a clearer course: A memo laid out a 13-step “process for decision-making” in revoking Ms. Zhang’s reliability status.
First, officials had to persuade a departmental security officer and assistant deputy minister that she should be denied status. Then she had to be given an opportunity to respond. After that, it would be a matter for judges – at the labour relations board, the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal, even the Supreme Court of Canada. If all else failed, “Seek directions from cabinet,” reads the 13th point.
Ms. Zhang was posted to the Middle East as a Xinhua reporter. After immigrating, she got an MBA and went to work representing Canadian businesses in China. She was headhunted by the PCO in 2003 with the promise that she’d learn more in a couple of years there than in an entire career in any other agency in government.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081222.ZHANG22/TPStory/?query=chinese
