ShareThisBy MARINA JIMENEZ
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A former Russian undercover agent who lived under a false name in Toronto and spied for the Russian government is suing Canada's immigration department for refusing to allow her to return here as a landed immigrant.
Elena Miller, a 43-year-old ex-spy, was deported in 1996 after her cover was blown by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Her second husband, Toronto physician Peter Miller, has tried for eight years to sponsor his attractive wife with the mysterious past, only to be stonewalled by the federal agency Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Although their marriage was found to be legitimate, an immigration officer ruled in 2001 that Elena Miller was inadmissible on security grounds because of her past employment with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR. A federal judge recently upheld the decision.
The Millers have filed a statement of claim seeking unspecified damages from Citizenship and Immigration Canada for negligent processing of their file, arguing that the eight-year wait has caused them irreparable harm and suffering.
The couple recently relocated to Switzerland, but would like to return to Canada where he has two grown sons.
She came to Canada in the early 1990s with her first husband, also a Russian spy. In a scenario not unlike a plot from a John Le Carre novel, the pair established Canadian identities, taking the names of Canadian-born babies who had died at birth a quarter-century earlier: Ian Lambert and Laurie Brodie. She found a job at an insurance company in Toronto, while her husband worked at a Blacks photography plant.
CSIS trailed the pair and, based on the evidence they gathered, Ottawa issued a security certificate against them, saying their espionage activities made them a security risk.
The Russian spies, whose real names are Yelena Olshanskaya and Dimitriy Olshanskiy, were deported to Russia in June 1996 _ but not before their marriage had disintegrated. Both had begun relationships with Canadians while working undercover. "Laurie Brodie" had met Peter Miller, a British-born physician and Oxford graduate who worked in Canada's medical insurance industry, at a party.
When news of the spy case became public, both the doctor and the girlfriend of "Ian Lambert," a fellow Blacks employee, were shocked to learn the true identities of their paramours.
According to notes in Elena Miller's voluminous immigration file, Peter Miller was "shaken" about the news as to her double identity, but she talked to him about "her real self, the real Lena."
Back in Moscow, she divorced and renounced the international world of espionage, and in December 1996, married Miller. He applied to sponsor his wife as a member of the family class.
She swore in an affidavit that she would never spy again.
Elena Miller claimed in a 2004 letter to then-public safety minister Anne McLellan that she was not only not "detrimental" to Canada's national interest, but that she was making a positive contribution, teaching Russian children about Canada and introducing them to the works of Alice Munro and Yan Martel.
"I have dealt with the Canadian government in a cooperative, respectful and low-key manner, despite inquiries from the Canadian media and offers for a book/film," she said.
The Millers have maintained a long-distance marriage for a decade, with Peter Miller visiting his wife four to six times a year.
