Top Secret Canada: Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community

by Stephanie Carvin (editor), Thomas Juneau (Editor), Craig Forcese (Editor)

National security in the interest of preserving the well-being of a country is arguably the first and most important responsibility of any democratic government. Motivated by some of the pressing questions and concerns of citizens, Top Secret Canada is the first book to offer a comprehensive study of the Canadian intelligence community, its different parts, and how it functions as a whole. In taking up this important task, contributors aim to identify the key players, explain their mandates and functions, and assess their interactions. Top Secret Canada features essays by the country’s foremost experts on law, foreign policy, intelligence, and national security, and will become the go-to resource for those seeking to understand Canada’s intelligence community and the challenges it faces now and in the future.

Genres: Canada, Politics, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2021

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tries to do two things:
1) Be a reference source for people who want to look up something specific about an intelligence agency. i.e. What is the budget and organizational structure of X organization? Who do they report to? They want you to be able to read this book, flip to the appropriate chapter and subheading, and find your answer.
2) Give interesting insights and arguments for how the intelligence community works and how it could be better.
These two things are often in conflict with each other. If you're a layperson who's looking for an accessible, readable introduction to the security community, this is a terrible book for you. In order to accomplish purpose 1), the book has formulaic subheadings each essay (one for each intelligence agency) has to follow that frankly make this extremely dry and boring. (X agency has Y employees that report to institution Z, and a budget of...)

It is also a book of academic articles rather than a book aimed at the general population. This means that when, for instance, an essay is trying to describe what it is that a particular intelligence agency does, it quotes passages of dry and complex legislation in small font with tight spacing rather than giving a clear, easily-understandable bulleted list written in plain terms. It really makes me appreciate how much non-fiction books meant for a general public audience do to make their books readable. Alas, there is so little written on the Canadian intelligence community that there isn't really a recent alternative book aimed at a popular public audience, so this is all we have.

There is a small number of essays that are able to accomplish 2) very well while still respecting the formulaic subheadings of 1), and managing to make the essay engaging and interesting instead of dry and unreadable. The Canada Centre chapter does this well, for instance. But in most chapters, 1) gets in the way of 2) big time. This is frustrating because 1) is not a useful thing to do in this day and age. It makes the book obsolete the minute it is printed, because each agency's budget and staffing and organizational structure is constantly changing. What is valuable even as years go by is drawing out those insights, arguments, lessons, and ideas that will be useful in the long term and transferable to other contexts. It's frustrating that this book has some of that great stuff, but you have to wade through so much boring stuff to get to it.

If you are like me, and the only thing you are actually interested in is the situation vis-a-vis whether there are checks and balances in place to ensure that these agencies are only infringing on human rights when actually necessary and useful / using their powers responsibly / being transparent and what we can do to improve these aspects in the future, then I will refer you to a pretty good essay on that in Chapter 14, and advise you to skip the rest of the book.

[Yann Roshdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je viens de terminer ma lecture de la semaine TOP SECRET CANADA, Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community édité aux presses de l'Université de Toronto (2020). C'est le PREMIER (!!!) livre faisant une recension de l'histoire et des agences, ministères et bureaucraties assurant la sécurité nationale du Canada.

C'est un livre de bureaucrate (écrit à plusieurs mains) et un document essentiel pour parler de politique en 2021. C'est un incontournable peu importe votre allégeance politique car 1) nous sommes en pandémie, 2) nous sommes en cyber-guerre, 3) nous sommes dans une guerre/concurrence/course commerciale, monétaire, technologique et logistique. Si vous ne reconnaissez pas partiellement les centaines d'acronymes utilisés dans ce livre, vous êtes 20 ans en retard. CSIS CSE PCO PMO ITAC FINTRAC RCMP CBSA PSC CCCVE DND/CAF GAC JC NSIRA NSICOP SIRC PCMLTFA PCRC PPSC PSC OPC ODAC OPCW PVE CVE NS-TAG NSJOC NSG NIJ NSIA NBOC IRFAN IAPI INSAC INSETs IRCC DGInt DFAA DIPM DMOC DMNS DMIA CFINTCOM DRDC CCRS CRCC CROs CDI CANSOFCOM CSOR CPN-PREV TSAS CIDA CJIRU CJOC CFIOG CDD CCIRC CCCS NTAC... La liste est longue.

Le monde a changé. Nous ne sommes plus en 1995 chers souverainistes, indépendantistes et nationalistes. Vous avez raté le bateau. Vous êtes des serfs et des courtisans. Vous n'êtes pas des citoyens.

1) le Canada est un pays pacifié. Cela veut dire qu'aucune guerre civile est en préparation. Cela sous-entend que a) les services de sécurité du Québec sont imbriqués à ceux du Canada, b) la sécurité nationale est assurée par les agences et bureaucraties canadiennes avec les services provinciaux (qui existent) agissant comme "aide" et "bras armés" de ces agences et bureaucraties.

2) La situation de province pacifiée dans un protectorat, qui est lui-même sous le protectorat américain, fait du Québec un sous-sous-vassal. En même temps, cela permet aux Québécois de vivre comme des Hobbits. Sans comprendre que le monde est terriblement mauvais et dangereux en dehors de leur Comté verte et progressiste.

3) les forces nationalistes, souverainistes et indépendantistes n'ont pas de "situationnal awareness". Dans leur tête vivant en 1995, ils croient que la souveraineté, l'indépendance et la nation se gagnent par l'idéologie, le marketing et les émotions. C'est faux. 100% faux. Le Québec comme état ne prend presque pas part aux activités essentielles à la survie du peuple québécois. Les gens du parti québécois, du bloc québécois et de tous ces cercles de militants vivent comme des courtisans se croyant dans un film de Disney.

[A.A. Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankly I did not finish reading this book. Although I did finish with it and passed it along to a friend who I thought would get more out of it. I found it technically correct yet dry and somewhat politically oriented.

The fact is we could be heading to a world conflict soon and the emperor has no clothes. The security community is not preparing people in this country for the future. Our institutions are politically correct but also are paper tigers.

I am an old cynic who has seen too much, a relic of the first Cold War. I do believe the author did a good job writing this book. The world is getting complicated and seniors like me want to keep it simple ... we either prepare for war or somehow otherwise make peace and keep our economy and defence strong so we can, in all ways, be a completely sovereign country with a thriving Judeo Christian culture.

God Bless Stephanie Carvin.

[Roger H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un regard (assez) complet - et complexe - sur l’appareil canadien en matière de sécurité. Assez lourd à lire, par endroit, à cause surtout des nombreux acronymes. J’ai particulièrement aimé les chapitres (moins rigoureux dans leurs descriptions) sur le « PMO », sur les médias et, bien sûr, celui consacré à « GAC » étant moi-même un ancien de la filière commerciale de ce ministère.