On January 9th 1974, as the Canadian public gathered around their bulky TV sets and turned on an hour-long, primetime television broadcast by the CBC revealing a secret communications branch of the National Research Council (CBNRC).
They reported that the average man dressed in a plaid shirt with overgrown mutton chops could be spy agents engaging in public espionage. They were working closely with the CIA to spy on foreign enemies by monitoring radio, telephone, and satellite transmissions.
Today that branch is known as the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). Its mandate is being revised and debated in Parliament through Bill C-59. The CSE faces more scrutiny than its predecessor, but still it remains an obscure part of Canadian security culture for both the public and politicians.
In their documentary, the CBC referred to a treaty called UKUSA, a superpower alliance between Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to divide the world up in four parts to share aggregated information. The United States allegedly did not reciprocate in passing along their intelligence.
Winslow Peck, a former intelligence officer of the National Security Agency, told their reporters that Canada was “merely an extension of the United States in a northward direction.”
The claims regarding the program sparked a heated debate in the House of Commons during the following two sessions.
David Lewis, the leader of the New Democratic Party, suggested that the Liberals in power should rethink the proprietary of Canadian scientists decoding and intercepting information for their southern neighbours.
“Is such an activity of value to Canada’s own interests or does it merely underline Canada’s satellite position in international affairs,” he asked.
Mitchell Sharp, Liberal External Affairs Minister, denied the existence of both the branch and the treaty calling the documentary “mischievous and misleading.”
Lewis persisted and pushed to sever the ties between the CIA and Canada. During this period of time they had a bad reputation for committing discreditable acts like murdering suspected Viet Cong leaders operating in South Vietnamese villages.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau casually responded that the United States was a friendly government and the RCMP would not judge the activities of their neighbour’s spy agency.
Lewis then suggested that research council’s communication branch be moved to a more appropriate department to which the prime minister responded that he was happy that the MP had acknowledge spying was justified.
One year later Lewis’ suggestion was put into effect. The communications spy agency became housed under the Department of National Defence and changed its name to the Communications Security Establishment of Canada.
“There was no more need to hide it in the NRC,” explained Alan Barnes, a CSE information analyst and historian on Canadian security culture. “Plus administratively it got awkward for the NRC because it never really had authority over the communications branch.”
In late March, at a routine committee meeting MP Perrin Beatty of the Progressive Conservative party asked the Minister of State for Science and Technology whether the secret UKUSA pact existed. The minister, Charles Dury, confirmed that there was an agreement referred to as such that would affect the activities of the signals intelligence agency.
Two months later Beatty revealed these findings to parliament, with no consequences for the ministers who had mislead them a year and a half earlier.
According to historical literature on the subject, the CSE’s mandate was never revised after the shocking revelations of its existence. No statutory framework was ever put in place and its capabilities still remained an official secret.
The public held the CSE to even less accountability than the politicians because there was less understanding about the impact of its role than there is today. More recently, there has been a lot written about the government’s ability to monitor that kind of information, explained Barnes.
He enjoys the increased attention the foreign signals intelligence agency is now receiving. With that attention comes more resources like the $500 million Canada’s national security sector will be allocated over the next five years, a good chunk of which is going to the CSE.
“Intelligence culture has always been extremely secretive. I think more secretive than necessary which does it a disservice,” he concluded.