Most Canadians have no idea where the country’s spy agency is located, nor do they know much about its daily operations. This is not because the Canadian Security Intelligence Service operates in a particularly clandestine fashion, it’s because most Canadians don’t care.
The CSIS, a civilian-run organisation based in a triangular structure of concrete and glass on the outskirts of Ottawa, lacks the intrigue of Britain’s MI5 and the notoriety of America’s Central Intelligence Agency.
“I look nothing like Daniel Craig, and I did not arrive here in an Aston Martin. I’m just as disappointed as you are – on both fronts,” its director, David Vigneault, said in a speech in 2018, poking fun at the service’s largely uncharismatic reputation. “Most of you remember the movie Fight Club. And you will know that the first rule of Fight Club is ‘don’t talk about Fight Club’. Well, the first rule of CSIS has always been ‘don’t talk’. Period.”
During the SNC Lavalin Scandal Katie Telford is said to have told Jody Wilson-Raybould’s chief of staff that she could arrange for her connections to ‘Write op-eds saying that what she is doing is proper.’ This piece fits the bill for narrative control.
I don’t know of anyone who thinks ill of CSIS for these leaks, other than the CCP compromised Liberal Party. In fact most of us are grateful for having this criminal chicanery exposed.
