Cleroux, Richard. Official Secrets: The Story Behind the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service. Montreal: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1990. 321 pages.
When most non-Canadians think of law enforcement in Canada, the image
of Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police comes to mind. By
1956 the Cold War changed the landscape, and RCMP's Special Branch was as
busy as their neighbors in going after Reds. That was small stuff. In the
1970s the big scandals came with the exposure of RCMP's war of dirty tricks
against the Quebec separatist movement. Two inquiries later, in 1984, the
Commons spun off RCMP's security and intelligence function into a new agency,
the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. At first CSIS was basically a
new name for the same game, as Mountie spooks sat at their old desks and
sent out the same memos under a new letterhead. But slowly, CSIS took on
its own identity.
Award-winning journalist Richard Cleroux has written Canada's first
book about CSIS. This well-balanced account covers the history of RCMP, the
bureaucratic turf wars that resulted from the creation of CSIS, and the
concerns over CSIS's mandate as seen by Canada's civil libertarians. CSIS is
basically a domestic agency; unlike America, Canada doesn't feel the need to
send spies all over the world. However, CSIS continues the tradition of a
cozy relationship with the FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency. According
to Cleroux (p.283), when the Americans say "Jump!" CSIS says, "How high?"
ISBN 0-07-551124-X
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