Foreign spying and interference in Canada last year hit levels not seen since the Cold War, in part because of vulnerabilities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the main Canadian spy agency said on Monday,

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) singled out Russia and China as particular causes for concern and said key national security threats such as violent extremism, foreign interference, espionage and malicious cyber activity grew in 2020 and "in many ways became much more serious for Canadians."

In its annual report for last year, CSIS linked the jump in foreign spying to the...