What drove a 35-year-old Canadian Sub Lieutenant to walk into the Russian embassy in Ottawa and offer his services as a spy? At the time, Jeffrey Delisle was, to all appearances, an unremarkable man. But privately he was reeling from a collapsed marriage, unable to pay his debts, and addicted to video games according to some who knew him. And so, desperate and downhearted, Delisle decided to sell the Russians top secret information from Canada’s closest allies for more than four years for a mere $71,000. Nobody close to him will even talk about him now, except for one person… and the fifth estate has the exclusive interview. In The Imperfect Spy, Linden MacIntyre unravels the mystery behind one of the biggest security breaches in Canadian history: who is Jeffrey Delisle, what did he do, and why did he do it?
The Imperfect Spy airs on CBC News’ the fifth estate, Friday, Jan. 11 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC-TV.
See how a high-tech system designed to make spying obsolete failed because of human nature. And see how Jeffrey Delisle easily skirted the authorities, and how intuitive FBI agents tipped off the Canadian authorities about a suspicious Canadian military officer. Jeffrey Delisle maintains that he was a broken man during the time he was selling secrets. And yet this Imperfect Spy still managed to remain undetected for several years. Perhaps in the end, the only truly ‘perfect’ spies are the ones we never hear about…
In advance of the broadcast, watch The Imperfect Spy online, for review purposes only, by contacting Corey Black (corey.black@cbc.ca) for the link and password. CBC News Network rebroadcasts the fifth estate on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET and Sundays at 7 p.m. ET. For more information on the fifth estate, visit our website at cbc.ca/fifth, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Executive producer of the fifth estate is Jim Williamson.
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About CBC’s Brand New In-House Publicity Team
CBC’s brand new team of in-house publicists are delivering a comprehensive publicity service for all CBC programming and events. For a complete list of publicity contacts and for more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the new CBC Media Centre at cbc.ca/mediacentre.
For further information, or to request interviews, contact:
Corey Black, News and Current Affairs Publicist, CBC
o) 416-205-8710
c) 647-221-4133
corey.black@cbc.ca
