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Covert Entry: Spies, Lies and Crimes Inside Canada's Secret Service
A unique, unprecedented look at the inner workings of our domestic secret service by a leading investigative reporter. An alarming portrait of incompetence -- and worse -- inside the agency that is supposed to protect us from terrorism.
Canada’s espionage agency enjoys operating deep in the shadows. Set up as a civilian force in the early eighties after the RCMP spy service was abolished for criminal excesses, no news is good news for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). This country’s spymasters work diligently to prevent journalists, politicians and watchdog agencies from prying into their secret world.
Few journalists have come close to rivalling Andrew Mitrovica at unveiling the stories CSIS does not want told. In
Covert Entry , the award-winning investigative reporter uncovers a disturbing pattern of corruption, law-breaking and incompetence deep inside the service, and provides readers with a troubling window on its daily operations.
At its core,
Covert Entry traces the eventful career of a veteran undercover operative who worked on some of the service’s most sensitive cases and was ordered to break the law by senior CSIS officers, in the name of national security. Like Philip Agee’s
Inside the CIA Diary , Mitrovica’s book delivers a ground-level, day-to-day look at who is actually running the show in clandestine operations inside Canada. The picture he paints does not fill one with confidence and definitively shatters the myth that CSIS respects the rights and liberties it is charged with protecting.
Canada’s espionage agency enjoys operating deep in the shadows. Set up as a civilian force in the early eighties after the RCMP spy service was abolished for criminal excesses, no news is good news for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). This country’s spymasters work diligently to prevent journalists, politicians and watchdog agencies from prying into their secret world.
Few journalists have come close to rivalling Andrew Mitrovica at unveiling the stories CSIS does not want told. In
Covert Entry , the award-winning investigative reporter uncovers a disturbing pattern of corruption, law-breaking and incompetence deep inside the service, and provides readers with a troubling window on its daily operations.
At its core,
Covert Entry traces the eventful career of a veteran undercover operative who worked on some of the service’s most sensitive cases and was ordered to break the law by senior CSIS officers, in the name of national security. Like Philip Agee’s
Inside the CIA Diary , Mitrovica’s book delivers a ground-level, day-to-day look at who is actually running the show in clandestine operations inside Canada. The picture he paints does not fill one with confidence and definitively shatters the myth that CSIS respects the rights and liberties it is charged with protecting.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 21, 2025
Slow to Start and Hard to Stay Engaged
Covert Entry has an intriguing premise and the potential to be an exciting look into CSIS operations in Canada, but for me, it never quite delivered on that promise. The biggest issue was the pacing, the book takes far too long to get started. What should have been gripping or suspenseful often felt drawn out, with long stretches of detail that didn’t add much momentum to the story. If the first chapters were much shorter it would have been easier to retain the information that is critical to the story to keep my attention drawn.
While the idea and subject itself could be fascinating, the slow buildup made it very difficult to stay invested. Instead of pulling me into the book, the opening chapters felt more like wading through background information than diving into the action or insight I expected. By the time things finally began to pick up, my interest had already faded, and the interesting part wasn't even that interesting.
I would rate this book 16 and up because it dives deep into real life situations that would be appropriate for younger audiences
Overall, Covert Entry may appeal to readers who enjoy extremely methodical, step-by-step narratives, but for those looking for a fast-moving, compelling read, it may feel tedious. For me, it was simply too slow and too dull to recommend.
Covert Entry has an intriguing premise and the potential to be an exciting look into CSIS operations in Canada, but for me, it never quite delivered on that promise. The biggest issue was the pacing, the book takes far too long to get started. What should have been gripping or suspenseful often felt drawn out, with long stretches of detail that didn’t add much momentum to the story. If the first chapters were much shorter it would have been easier to retain the information that is critical to the story to keep my attention drawn.
While the idea and subject itself could be fascinating, the slow buildup made it very difficult to stay invested. Instead of pulling me into the book, the opening chapters felt more like wading through background information than diving into the action or insight I expected. By the time things finally began to pick up, my interest had already faded, and the interesting part wasn't even that interesting.
I would rate this book 16 and up because it dives deep into real life situations that would be appropriate for younger audiences
Overall, Covert Entry may appeal to readers who enjoy extremely methodical, step-by-step narratives, but for those looking for a fast-moving, compelling read, it may feel tedious. For me, it was simply too slow and too dull to recommend.
November 19, 2019
God this is boring. I’m sorry but it is. It’s stuff citizenry ought to know about but not in this format. I do not think it could be presented in more boring a fashion. Just a summary of the screw ups would be preferable, I think. Instead, it’s all presented through the lens of the “whistleblower” in such granular detail it reads like absolute fiction.
I’m sure the idea is that so much is remembered and there are so many details and photos that it makes a better case for the information, proving it to be true. While that may be true, as in the back it says there are many, many source that are not named, and throughout mind you, there are sections where the author inquired to the people and recorded the various responses. So, yay, perhaps it’s true and people should know, especially considering Canadians know little to know about CSIS and special operations, or about how they’re a bunch of idiots that seem to not be all that well trained in their tactics and break the law indiscriminately. That’s useful information!
What isn’t is what every single co-worker liked to wear and their mannerisms and what they liked and didn’t like and who they hooked up with, inflating the book by an order of magnitude. The interactions must rely on recollections or else be fiction and that actually deflated the relevant information substantially for me.
It’s not poorly written it’s just a terrible terrible choice in how to present it. It’s this man’s story, I get it. Figure out what’s interesting and pertinent and then right the story or write an article. 360 pages this should not be, not by a long shot, imo.
I’m sure the idea is that so much is remembered and there are so many details and photos that it makes a better case for the information, proving it to be true. While that may be true, as in the back it says there are many, many source that are not named, and throughout mind you, there are sections where the author inquired to the people and recorded the various responses. So, yay, perhaps it’s true and people should know, especially considering Canadians know little to know about CSIS and special operations, or about how they’re a bunch of idiots that seem to not be all that well trained in their tactics and break the law indiscriminately. That’s useful information!
What isn’t is what every single co-worker liked to wear and their mannerisms and what they liked and didn’t like and who they hooked up with, inflating the book by an order of magnitude. The interactions must rely on recollections or else be fiction and that actually deflated the relevant information substantially for me.
It’s not poorly written it’s just a terrible terrible choice in how to present it. It’s this man’s story, I get it. Figure out what’s interesting and pertinent and then right the story or write an article. 360 pages this should not be, not by a long shot, imo.
August 25, 2022
Half-baked Journalism
Mitrovica narrates barely investigated facts fed to him by his chosen protagonist - John Farrell.
Astoundingly absent from this - is that in the mid 1990’s Farrell and Wihlidal approached Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto in an attempt to use minor/high school students as part of their shenanigans (with fake business cards, fake addresses, etc) - and all of this under a "Co-Op education program". Their front company was called the National Crime Research Centre.
Ironically, later on Farrell would join the Catholic School Board in Toronto.
This book does one thing well - but purely by accident - which is to accurately describe just how incompetent Canadian intelligence services were then and are now including, but certainly not limited to, keeping incompetent RCMP staff from past debacles on board within the new organization.
Mitrovica narrates barely investigated facts fed to him by his chosen protagonist - John Farrell.
Astoundingly absent from this - is that in the mid 1990’s Farrell and Wihlidal approached Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto in an attempt to use minor/high school students as part of their shenanigans (with fake business cards, fake addresses, etc) - and all of this under a "Co-Op education program". Their front company was called the National Crime Research Centre.
Ironically, later on Farrell would join the Catholic School Board in Toronto.
This book does one thing well - but purely by accident - which is to accurately describe just how incompetent Canadian intelligence services were then and are now including, but certainly not limited to, keeping incompetent RCMP staff from past debacles on board within the new organization.
January 31, 2012
Covert Entry is a surprising winner of the Arthur Ellis True Crime Awards given that it is less about true crime than about the underside of domestic espionage in Canada in the early years of CSIS. Mitrovica's account of the adventures of semi-spy John Farrell leave a dark impression on the degree to which individual rights are respected in the pursuit of national security. It is however inevitably one-sided as there is no venue for the agency and its handlers to reply to the accusations made against them.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews