Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America
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by Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey, and Andrew Parnaby
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2012.
696 pp., illus., $36.95 paperback
Secret Service is an extensive, detailed, and troubling look at Canada’s history of political policing. The story stretches back to Canada’s earliest internal spying efforts in the 1860s, guarding against the Fenian threat, and extends to the present day. From Louis Riel to the birth of trade unions, the FLQ crisis, and through the Cold War to the post–9/11 world, Canadian governments have deployed extensive resources for watching Canadians.
Much of Canada’s initial secret service work was conducted on behalf of king and country, directed from Britain to keep Irish and Indian immigrants from fomenting dissent in their homelands and threatening imperial power. It was only with the onset of the First World War that the gaze turned inward towards threats directed at Canada.
As the authors note, Canadians take their secret service as something of a joke and are often unaware of its impact. The reality is a much deeper and darker history that is only now coming to light through excellent studies such as this.
— Joel Ralph (Read bio)
Joel Ralph is the director of programs for Canada's History Society.