Reinventing the Looking Glass: Developing a Canadian Foreign Intelligence Service

Abstract

Should Canada create its own foreign intelligence service? This paper will explore this issue in five stages. First, a brief examination of Canada’s intelligence history will discuss how Canada has engaged in espionage and examine why it has failed to establish a foreign intelligence service. Second, the thesis will delineate Canada’s foreign intelligence community, the major collectors of foreign intelligence, and assess foreign intelligence support for United Nations peacekeeping. The third stage of the examination will be a critical analysis of Canada’s intelligence capabilities. This will lead to the fourth stage, the debate over whether Canada needs a foreign intelligence service. Fifth, the method will be suggested for creating a Canadian secret service as well as reforming Canada’s intelligence infrastructure and the Canadian Forces Information Operations doctrine.