A Canadian family is baffled as to how an alleged Russian spy selected the name of a dead relative to use for a false identity.
The U.S. announced earlier this week that it had smashed an alleged Russian spy-ring that sought to infiltrate policy-making circles in the United States.
Four of the accused spies purported to be Canadians -- one of whom was using the name of Donald Howard Graham Heathfield, an infant who died decades ago in Montreal.
The surviving family members of the deceased Donald Heathfield are shocked by their connection to the still-developing spy drama.
David Heathfield was only four years old when his brother died as an infant 47 years ago.
"He just died of a crib death. It was very sudden," said Heathfield, telling CTV's Canada AM about his brother's death during a telephone interview from Brampton, Ont., on Wednesday morning.
It's the family's suspicion that the alleged spies picked the name up from an obituary that was placed in the paper in the past.
Heathfield said he learned about his family's connection to the spy story after a reporter phoned him asking for comment about the case.
After checking into the matter, Heathfield began to wonder "how someone could use Donald's name or my father's name, and on top of that, be a Russian spy?"
While the family is asking for answers about how this could happen, they also have concerns that their ability to travel could be in jeopardy as a result of their name being involved in the case.
"We're concerned that in our travelling plans, you know, if we're put on any no-fly lists going into the (United) States, because now we're connected to this Russian spy-thing with our surname," said Heathfield.
Heathfield said the family has not been contacted by authorities in the U.S. or Canada since the story broke.
The three other spy suspects that claim to be Canadian went by the names Patricia Mills, Christopher R. Metsos and Tracey Lee Ann Foley.
Foley is married to the arrested suspect who used Heathfield's name.
The arrested man known as Donald Heathfield worked in Boston for Global Partners Inc., a business-services firm.
He claimed to have graduated from York University in 1995 -- where a degree exists with his name on it -- and colleagues believed he was of French Canadian background.
Investigators have revealed that they have obtained a copy of an Ontario birth certificate under the name of Donald Howard Graham Heathfield. The suspicion is that it is fake.
Russian spies have long used the identities of dead individuals and former CSIS agent Michel Juneau-Katsuya says it is a "classic story" that he has worked on himself.
These spies typically take the identity of a dead child, start planning a new identity and "begin to make a new person out of the entire thing."
"The Russian spy has to undergo intensive training, in terms of language, to sort of pick up the accent of being a Canadian," Juneau-Katsuya told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa on Wednesday morning.
"He has to understand, or she has to understand, also a little bit of Canadian history, because she or he has to assume the identity of a Canadian."
In Moscow, media are questioning the timing of the arrests of the people linked to the alleged spy ring.
CNN's Matthew Chance said there is a sense that the decades-old tensions between Moscow and Washington are rearing their head at a time when the two countries are trying to improve relations.
"This comes against the backdrop of warming relations between Moscow and Washington -- and the sense here is that there are hawks in Washington that are very uncomfortable with the idea of the Obama administration moving closer to the Kremlin and wanted to deliver this message that the Russians couldn't be entirely trusted," Chance told CTV's Canada AM during a telephone interview from Moscow on Wednesday morning.
With files from The Canadian Press
