The American diplomat did not want to meet in his embassy, then located directly across the street from Canada’s Parliament.
So there we were, sitting on a bench in the open, grassy area leading to the front entrance of Parliament, discussing how to reach an eventual agreement between Canada and the Reagan administration in Washington to deal with acid rain, a major priority for many Canadians and a growing number of Americans.
After we had reached an understanding on the tactics we’d use to push our two sides closer to a deal, the American diplomat stood up, paused and pointedly said: “When you discuss this with your embassy in Washington, don’t use your government’s secure telephone line.”
Without a further word, he turned and headed back to his embassy across the street.
Recently, I thought about that warning as the controversy continued over the information leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden indicating that the U.S. had been spying on even its ostensible allies and friends, including European Union countries.
Some in Canada wondered whether this country has also been spied on by U.S. governments in the past or present. Many people take it for granted that major powers such as the U.S. and Russia, along with Britain and now China, have been engaged since the postwar period in trying to covertly obtain information on other countries’ policies and actions.
But what about Canada’s own role in the field of intelligence gathering? Few Canadians are aware that Canada is actively involved in sharing intelligence gathered around the world with the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in an agreement known as the Five Eyes Intelligence Community. The focal point for Canada’s intelligence gathering is the little-known Communications Security Establishment Canada, which reports to the minister of national defence.
Created in Ottawa in 1946, CSEC’s covert intelligence operations were so secret that the government only admitted their existence in 1974, after the CBC program Fifth Estate did a story on the organization.
During the Cold War, CSEC was primarily involved in providing the government with foreign intelligence information, much of it through monitoring electronic communications of governments and their agencies, including their diplomatic missions.
In recent times, increased attention has been paid to extremist groups of various backgrounds, terrorist organizations, global narcotics and a range of other illegal activities.
This has come with a hefty cost.
CSEC’s intelligence-gathering role has become so large that, despite the Harper government’s current severe budget-cutting, a new CSEC facility is being built in Ottawa at a reported cost of more than $880 million. To open in 2015, it will house almost 2,000 employees.
While many Canadians might find that monitoring such activities by foreign governments can be justified by national interests, especially when it involves threats posed by terrorists, covert intelligence gathering has also always involved the gathering of information on trade and economic issues.
Such material can be extremely important to advance a country’s trade interests. Not surprisingly, governments have relied upon such covert awareness of other countries’ trade and economic intentions as highly useful tools in their bilateral and international dealings.
For example, one of Snowden’s revelations was that the Obama administration has been spying on European Union countries, including their diplomatic missions.
This news comes at the very time that the U.S. and European Union are to begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement that would be the most important of its kind for the international trading community.
Some EU leaders have been so incensed by the exposure of the spying that they have questioned whether the talks should go forward.
Although cynics assume that this anger will eventually abate because of both sides’ need to maintain their traditional links in many sectors, Snowden’s disclosures could undermine the customary close relationship between the U.S. and other Western countries.
Many governments will likely become far more cautious in their dealings with the Americans, not wishing to see their own candid views and actions exposed for all to see, as is now happening because of the leaking of National Security Agency intercepts. This reality also has implications for Canada, whose trade and economic prosperity are closely tied to relations with the U.S.
While most Canadians undoubtedly would like to think this country’s relationship with the Americans is free from such covert intelligence-gathering, cynics might consider such sentiments questionable, if not naïve.
Harry Sterling, a former Canadian diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.
