Grant Bristow

As time progressed and Bristow became further involved in the far-right, he was promoted from member to Security Chief of the Nationalist Party. Throughout this time his friendship with Droege continued to grow, with Droege revealing more and more about himself and his past. Looking back on these times in 2005, Bristow said, "I was keeping watch over violent hate groups, it was the right thing to do." From this position, he screened and collected detailed personal information on all new members, which was promptly copied and forwarded to CSIS. By mid-1989 however, Droege was increasingly dissatisfied with Andrews and the Party and began considering a departure to form a new group more to his liking.

For the first time, Bristow decided in September 2004 to break his silence regarding the whole issue, and granted an in-depth interview to the Canadian current affairs magazine The Walrus, which led to a resurgence of media coverage around the issue. In the interview, Bristow gives details about his time with CSIS, activities before and after the affair and his current life. While he remains concerned about retaliation, he has largely moved on in his life and has let go of the past.

Grant Bristow (born February 1958 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) was an undercover spy, or mole, for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), who successfully infiltrated the Heritage Front white supremacist group for six years. Several months after the assignment, Bristow was exposed by Toronto Sun reporter Bill Dunphy, in August 1994. His work inside the Heritage Front became highly controversial in Canada, when exposed, due to much of his activity being viewed as that of a contributory nature, reflected by an August 14, 1994 Toronto Sun headline, "Spy Unmasked: CSIS Informant 'Founding Father' of white racist group".

Soon after these incidents and under the guise of job-hunting, Bristow took a US vacation to marry his girlfriend. Upon his return it became evident he would be forced to terminate his involvement with the front, as Droege was being charged with assault and if Droege was imprisoned, Bristow would become the de facto leader of the Front, an untenable position for a government-employed mole. The exit wouldn't be easy, but not terribly difficult either. Due to the legal hurdles and a general dwindling of support (both public and internal), the Front was beginning to fade. Bristow soon informed Droege of his plan to leave the movement for a job in Eastern Canada, Droege was sad but grateful for the friendship they had and Bristow's efforts for the movement. It was March 1994 when Operation Governor officially concluded, Bristow having prepared dossiers on remaining Far-righters who still posed a threat of some sort beforehand.

On August 12, 1994, Bristow was contacted by Toronto Sun reporter Bill Dunphy, who informed him he was about to go to press with a story about Bristow's being a CSIS asset and exposing much of his Front activity through the duration of his work. Given the violent tendencies of his former targets, Bristow requested Dunphy not to publish the story, but Dunphy insisted and went to press just two days later — on 14 August 1994. Bristow realized he had to get his family and himself out of Toronto and into hiding immediately and CSIS obliged. They were first moved to Jasper for a brief stay and opportunity to evade the situation while plans were made. Eventually resettled in Alberta, his 1995 return to Toronto for a funeral again found him caught by the media, with a CSIS crisis team having to meet to deal with a Toronto Star reporter's questions and subsequent publishing of the identities of and photos of both Bristow and his wife. Feeling apathetic by this point due to stress, they decided simply to return home and hope for the best.

It was from the publicity generated by these sorts of arrests that major opposition to the Front began to rise. Groups like Anti-Racist Action began to appear, and were present whenever the Front was in Court or on the streets. Tensions were building, and so were numbers on both sides. Bristow walked a very fine line, his role in CSIS preventing him from engaging in the ever-growing violence, a potential Achilles' Heel for his ongoing espionage. These demonstrations and counter-demonstrations culminated in a riot in Ottawa on May 29, 1993, with physical attacks taking place against parties on both sides. These events culminated in calls by the majority of young and angry Front members for retaliatory attacks, and when these calls went unanswered by the Front's leadership, a splinter gang of violent white power skinheads was formed. Bristow passed an emergency message onto his CSIS handlers. Immediately this gang sprung into action, robbing a donut shop the first night and threatening a major attack on the Canadian Jewish Congress. The group had a large weapons cache when police apprehended them.

In late July 1989, Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi invited delegates from the Nationalist party to attend celebrations for the 20th Anniversary of his revolution, all expenses paid. Andrews was unable to attend due to legal obligations, so Droege and Bristow went together at Droege's insistence. Their flight to Libya took them to Rome, where Italian Intelligence officers detained them and unsuccessfully attempted to convince them to cancel their Libyan visit. They arrived in Tripoli with many other extremists from around the world (Qadaffi had invited many leaders of far-left and far-right movements around the world, hoping to unite them in opposition to their common enemy in Zionism), but despite their best efforts Droege left with only $1000(US) gift.

Operation Governor began in the autumn of 1988. Its original scope was extremely broad, with no particular targets or goals. Its primary function was basically nothing more than gathering any and all information available to him. The Autumn of 1988 was an ideal time for this mission to begin primarily because many of the groups were lacking in numbers and intelligent membership. As an educated professional, Bristow was an attractive prospect. These factors made it simpler for him to infiltrate without raising any eyebrows. Bristow quickly became friends with Party leader Don Andrews, crediting their fast friendship with "mirroring", an intelligence technique where one mimics the target's thoughts and feelings, forging a bond to gain trust. Through his friendship with Andrews, he attended a 'Welcome Home' party for Wolfgang Droege, returning from a US prison where he served time for cocaine trafficking and a weapons charge. This was his first encounter with Droege, with whom he immediately struck up rapport. After a few conversations he realized that unlike the primarily verbal Andrews, Droege was the real thing. He was interested in taking real action in support of his extreme ideas, which motivated Bristow to slowly move his focus and efforts from Andrews to Droege.

Grant Bristow began his career as a private investigator, working with several Toronto-based investigation firms through the early and mid-1980s. Through this work, he developed both the personality and resources necessary to perform covert infiltrations and intelligence gathering. Bristow's CSIS involvement commenced in 1986 through an official at the South African embassy, then a rogue state. He was hired to perform security work at their Ottawa embassy, which was the target of many demonstrations at the time due to the nation's continued Apartheid policy. According to an interview Bristow gave to The Walrus in September 2004, and as implied in the SIRC report of December 1995, one of two Embassy officials he had contact with at the time also requested he gather and provide intelligence on the Canadian anti-Apartheid demonstrators individually. He says he was opposed to this idea (gathering intelligence on Canadians for a foreign government), desiring only to provide security for the embassy. However, he feigned interest in the proposal and secretly arranged a meeting with a CSIS officer to report the Official's request. This meeting marked the beginning of Bristow's involvement with the intelligence agency. Following the meeting with the CSIS representative Bristow proceeded to co-operate, reporting details on the progression of the 'mission'. His work was successful and on August 20, 1986, the Canadian government expelled one of the South African officials and prohibited the other from re-entry to Canada designating him persona non grata.