Former Canadian ambassador to Israel worked for Black Cube

Vivian Bercovici, Canada's former ambassador to Israel, worked for the Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube after her diplomatic tenure ended, Radio-Canada has learned.

Black Cube is a controversial private sector company composed of ex-members of the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies.

Black Cube made headlines in 2017 when it was discovered that Hollywood film executive Harvey Weinstein had hired it to dig up information on the women accusing him of sexual assault, and on the journalists pursuing the story.

In Canada, Black Cube has been criticized by an Ontario court for attempting to discredit a judge by trying to get him to make antisemitic comments in secretly recorded meetings.

Bercovici was appointed ambassador by then-prime minister Stephen Harper in January 2014. She was removed from her post by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, 2016.

In one of the messages Bercovici sent a potential Black Cube client in 2019, she says she can provide a wide range of services, such as undercover surveillance, finding hidden information about third parties' personal lives and tracing bank accounts and assets.

In other messages, she writes that she works for Black Cube, that she would be one of the people personally supervising all operational matters and that Black Cube believes it can help the client achieve their objective. Although she was not ambassador at the time, the messages make it clear she had held that position.

Bercovici, who lives in Israel, did not provide answers to our questions — even at the end of a deadline extended at the request of her lawyer William McDowell of the Toronto law firm Lenczner Slaght.

Through its lawyer, Black Cube denies that Bercovici has ever worked for them.

"Black Cube has never employed Ms. Vivian Bercovici, whether directly, as an employee, contractor or consultant, or indirectly, through any subsidiary or third party," wrote their lawyer, Jonathan Abrams, of the U.K. law firm Gregory Abrams Davidson Solicitors.

"We would stress that Black Cube's operations and methodologies are backed by highly respected expert legal opinions in every jurisdiction in which it operates, ensuring that Black Cube's activities are in full compliance with applicable laws in those jurisdictions," Abrams added.

Black Cube has offices in Tel Aviv, London and Madrid.

Black Cube has carried out controversial operations in Canada in the past.

One was an undercover sting operation to discredit a Toronto judge who had ruled against its client, Catalyst Capital Group, a private investment company. Radio-Canada/CBC has no indication that Bercovici participated in this operation.

In 2017, Catalyst hired Tamara Global Holdings, an Israeli investigation and security firm, which in turn retained the services of Black Cube and Psy Group, an Israeli intelligence firm that no longer exists.

Those companies were hired to assist Catalyst in its legal dispute with a rival company.

One of the goals of the vast undercover operation they organized was to attack the reputation of Judge Frank Newbould, who had rendered a decision against Catalyst in a commercial legal dispute.

Using a false identity, a Black Cube agent met with Judge Newbould and tried to get him to make anti-Jewish comments during secretly recorded meetings.

"Basically we're trying to prove that he's a racist, a depraved anti-Semite, and trying to find information that could paint him in as negative a light as possible," wrote a Psy Group agent to a Black Cube agent, according to an Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling that was made public in March 2021.

The recent court decision revealed new details about the activities of these intelligence companies in Canada. But the fact that Tamara Global Holdings acted as an intermediary between Catalyst, Black Cube and Psy Group has been public knowledge since at least 2018.