This book must have been a bombshell when it came out. It follows one particular operative who was key to the day-to-day operations of one branch of the Canadian intelligence service: he was asked on multiple occasions to break the law to further the service’s operations (particularly spying on suspected Russian agents, and the non-spying Canadian citizens in their orbit), and when he finally took his concerns to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the service, he was blown off and disregarded.

The book lifts up the rock that the intelligence service was hiding under and reveals some pretty nasty things. In addition to the law-breaking, the whole culture in the service was rotten. The watchdog was not set up properly either, making it dependent on the service it was monitoring to make sure it had all the information necessary to rule on complaints brought forward. No wonder the operative was dismissed.

This book is interesting from a historical perspective. I am not sure how much the culture has changed, but technology has certainly changed in the 17 years since this book was published. Turns out that in June 2019, Bill C-59, An Act Respecting National Security Matters, was given royal assent. The Security Intelligence Review Committee has been abolished and a new agency, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency, has been created to oversee both CSIS and the Communications Security Establishment, which deals with cryptology and the IT side of foreign intelligence. It will be interesting to see how this new agency actually ends up working. ( )