Accused of being a Russian ‘sex spy’
Border services appeals decision to clear woman for permanent residency
Elena Crenna and her Canadian husband were thrilled when a federal tribunal ruled she was not a “sex spy” for Russia and should be cleared for permanent residency in Canada.
“We were relieved that sanity finally prevailed. We were jubilant,” Crenna said of the immigration tribunal’s decision in May. “We even went on a trip to visit my son in the (United) States. We thought we were done and could move on with our lives.”
Their joy was shortlived, however, when they learned the Canada Border Services Agency is appealing the decision, saying the 56-year-old Russianborn American citizen shouldn’t be allowed to live in Canada because she allegedly engaged in espionage activities while working for a Canadian Crown corporation near Moscow in the 1990s.
Crenna insists the allegations are untrue and that continuing to pursue the case is a “waste of our resources and Canada’s resources.”
She was cleared for permanent residency in May by the immigration tribunal, which refuted the border agency’s al- legations and concluded there was no evidence she did anything “surreptitious, covert or secretive” that would amount to espionage.
Crenna, who was then Elena Filatova, had worked as a translator on a joint housing project by the World Bank and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in Tver, northwest of Moscow, between 1994 and 1996.
During that time period, Crenna said she was approached by an agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor to the KGB, and asked about the project and David Crenna, 74, her then boss and now husband.
According to the border agency’s inadmissibility report, Crenna told Canadian officials she spoke with the Russian intelligence agency at the instruction of the project management, which also informed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about the contact.
Crenna later moved to California and became a nurse. She reconnected with David Crenna in 2008 and the pair got married four years later.
In 2013, she moved to Ottawa where they filed a spousal sponsorship for her to become a permanent resident in Canada.
Based on a memoir by a former Russian spy, titled Comerade J, the border agency argued the FSB was known for using women who would initiate a romantic relationship with a “target” in order to obtain intelligence information or blackmail that person into collaborating with the intelligence agency.
However, during the tribunal hearing earlier this year, five Canadian witnesses who worked on the project testified the Tver housing endeavour was not classified and there was nothing confidential about their work there.
In her decision in Crenna’s favour, tribunal chair Marisa Musto pointed out espionage is not specifically defined in Canada’s immigration law but she couldn’t accept the border agency’s argument that the simple fact of answering the FSB’s questions amounted to spying.
“The (Public Safety) Minister is overly broad and speculative in their position,” wrote Musto. “The minister was not able to identify any clear risk to Canadian interests which was brought about by the FSB’s interest in the Tver housing project.”
Crenna confirmed that while she was working on the Tver project, she had an affair with David Crenna, while he was married to someone else. While the minister suggested Crenna was being used as a “sex spy” by the FSB, “this theory is not substantiated by the facts or any credible evidence,” Musto wrote.
The couple’s lawyer, Seamus Murphy, said he was baffled by the border agency’s response to the tribunal decision and the couple will be stuck in limbo for at least a couple more years before the government’s appeal will be heard.