Dennis Gino Molinaro

Dennis Molinaro is a former intelligence analyst and policy advisor. He has advised several Western governments on foreign malign influence. An author and an academic, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2015 and studies the history of security, counterintelligence and foreign influence. A frequent media commentator on intelligence and foreign-influence issues, he has taught courses on modern espionage, human rights law and national security. His current book is Under Assault, highlighting People's Republic of China espionage and interference in North America. His next book on foreign influence in the U.S. is under contract with the Naval Institute Press. 

2019 - Award for Safeguarding Canadian Elections and Democratic Institutions, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

2021 - Award to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP) for The Bridge in the Parks: The Five Eyes and Cold War Counterintelligence, University of Toronto Press.

2018 - L.R. Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowship, McMaster University 2017 R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History

2017 - Symons Trust Fund for Canadian Studies, Trent University

2016 - Peter Oliver Award for “Section 98: The Trial of Rex v. Buck et al and the ‘State of Exception’ in Canada, 1919-1936.” In Wright, Barry, Susan Binnie, Eric Tucker eds. Canadian State Trials Volume 4: Security, Dissent and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. Awarded by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History

2016 - Award to Scholarly Publications Program (ASPP) for An Exceptional Law: Section 98 and the Emergency State, 1919-1936, University of Toronto Press

2015 - Symons Trust Fund for Canadian Studies, Trent University

2014 - Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Province of Ontario

2013 - Margaret S. McCullough Scholarship in Canadian Historical Research, University of Toronto

2011-2013 - Jeanne Armour Scholarship, University of Toronto

2010-2012 - University of Toronto Fellowship, University of Toronto

2008-2011 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship, SSHRC, Government of Canada

2008 - Coburn Award, University of Toronto

2007 - Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Province of Ontario  

Books

2026 - (Title Not Yet Released): Espionage and Influence in China’s Secret War on America (under contract, The Naval Institute Press).

2025 - Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada, Penguin/Random House.

Refereed Books

2021 - The Bridge in the Parks: The Five Eyes and Cold War Counterintelligence. Editor. University of Toronto Press. SSHRC ASPP Funded. 

2018 - Deportation of Immigrants and Ethnics in Canadian History. Canadian Historical Association. 

2017 - An Exceptional Law: Section 98 and the Emergency State, 1919- 1936, Osgood Society for Canadian Legal History and University of Toronto Press. SSHRC ASPP Funded.

Refereed Journal Articles

2023 - Dennis Molinaro and Phillip Davies (co-author), “The FAN TAN File: Quebec Separatism and Security Service Resistance to Politicization 1971-72,” Intelligence & National Security 39 (1). Open Access.

2017 - “‘In the Field of Espionage there’s No Such Thing as Peacetime:’ The Official Secrets Act and the PICNIC Wiretapping Program.” Canadian Historical Review 98 3. Lead article.

2017 - “How the Cold War Began…With British Help: The Gouzenko Affair Revisited.” Labour/Le Travail 79. Spring.

2015 - “‘Citizens of the World:’ Law, Deportation and the Homo Sacer, 1932-1934,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 47 3, 2015:143-162

2014 - “Annihilation Without Representation: Canada, Cuba and the use of Intelligence in the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Polymath: An International Arts and Sciences Journal 4 4 (Fall).

2010 - “‘A Species of Treason?’ Deportation and Nation-Building: The Case of Tomo Čačić 1929-1934.” Canadian Historical Review 91 1 (March 2010): 61-85.

Published Refereed Book Chapters

2021 - “Hunting ‘the Canadians:’ Wiretapping, Counter-Intelligence and the Search for Legal Authority” in Dennis Molinaro ed., The Bridge in the Parks: The Five Eyes and Cold War Counterintelligence. University of Toronto Press.

2015 - “Section 98: The Trial of Rex v. Buck et al and the ‘State of Exception’ in Canada, 19191936.” In Wright, Barry, Susan Binnie, Eric Tucker eds. Canadian State Trials Volume 4:Security, Dissent and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

2009 - “Calculated Diplomacy: John Diefenbaker and the Origins of Canada’s Cuba Policy.” In Wright, Robert and Lana Wylie eds. Our Place in the Sun: Canada and Cuba in the Castro Era. eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.