Global Affairs Canada liaising with Swiss officials over Canadian detained under allegations of spying

A Canadian man detained in Switzerland under allegations of spying is a consultant in the clean-energy and environment sector, who frequently worked with Chinese institutions and travelled to China for work.

Canadian officials are in contact with Swiss officials over the man’s detention, the federal government said Friday.

International media reported this week the middle-aged Canadian was detained earlier this year but didn’t release his identity. A source told The Globe and Mail the man is Craig Boljkovac. The Globe is not identifying the source because they were not permitted to disclose the personal details.

Marie-Hélène Jeandin, a Geneva-based lawyer for Fontan et Associés, who international media identified as Mr. Boljkovac’s lawyer, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mr. Boljkovac worked with Chinese institutions, including with an electric vehicle battery recycling company founded in Shenzhen province, according to his social media profile.

Global Affairs Canada declined to identify Mr. Boljkovac, citing privacy considerations.

“Global Affairs Canada is aware that a Canadian citizen was detained in Switzerland. Consular officials are in contact with local authorities,” spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said in a statement. “No further information can be disclosed.”

The Attorney-General’s office in Switzerland did not respond to a request for comment.

The case first came to light in a joint investigation by the German news outlet Der Spiegel, the Swiss media company Tamedia and North Korea-focused website NK News.

According to NK News, the man, who is in his 50s and a resident of Geneva, travelled to China regularly for his work as an environmental consultant before being detained earlier in the spring on espionage allegations

A LinkedIn profile for Mr. Boljkovac states that he graduated from the University of Toronto and worked as an adviser for the World Wildlife Fund for two-and-a-half years before joining the United Nations Institute for Training and Research from 2000 to 2012. There, he worked as a project manager for the chemicals and waste management program, which develops guidance for governments and institutions to ensure sound management of chemicals.

While he was with the World Wildlife Fund in the late 1990s, he testified at both the Senate and House of Commons committee hearings on the newly created Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Starting in 2012, his LinkedIn page says he worked as an independent environmental consultant, taking on projects like the EU-Vietnam multilateral trade assistance program (MUTRAP).

His profile said that he joined Chinese-based GEM Co. Ltd. – an acronym for Green Eco-Manufacture – in 2016. The company specializes in electrical-waste management and recycling of plastic and critical minerals used in electric vehicles.

A year prior, his LinkedIn page says he became a senior adviser and lecturer with a school connected to the China-based Tsinghua University School of Environment. According to a webpage for the school, it has “expertise in implementing various projects on controlling environmental release” and sound management of various waste pollutants under the Stockholm Convention.

The centre is part of the Basel and Stockholm Regional Centre in China, which was founded in 1997 with the core function of “training, technology transfer, information provision, advisory services, and awareness-raising activities,” according to its webpage.

Meanwhile, Mr. Boljkovac’s bio on GEM’s website states that he is also a senior consultant and lecturer with a Tsinghua University Center for Excellence. A webpage for a Centre for Excellence in Education affiliated with Tsinghua University shows that it’s a U.S. non-profit based in Virginia that “nurtures high school and university scholars to careers of excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”

A separate page on the centre’s website states that its collaboration with Tsinghua University is part of a “research science initiative” between the centre and the Chinese institution. It also lists other research partnership agreements with 61 other countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, Bulgaria, Israel and Singapore.

The GEM profile states that Mr. Boljkovac’s work experience includes co-operating “with more than 100 UN member states to carry out environmental protection projects and activities” and that he “coordinated international activities related to chemicals and waste with the heads of the chemicals programme of the United Nations, OECD and World Bank.”

With reports from Reuters and Irene Galea in Berlin