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CSIS takes over spy duty from RCMP

Broadcast Date: June 22, 1983

In 1983, espionage is as big a problem as ever: 70 foreign officials, mostly Soviets, have been expelled from Canada for spying since the Gouzenko affair.
The RCMP has been in charge of Canada's spy business since Gouzenko. Now a civilian agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, is being created to deal with espionage, terrorism and subversion. But CSIS isn't ready, and Canada is in a particularly vulnerable period "between red coats and trench coats."

CSIS takes over spy duty from RCMP

• The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was originally formed as the North-West Mounted Police in 1873. It is unique in the world because it is a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body.

• The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was created by an Act of Parliament in 1984, following the McDonald Commission of Inquiry of the late 1970s and the Mackenzie Commission of the 1960s. Its main objective is to investigate and report on threats to the security of Canada.

CSIS takes over spy duty from RCMP

Medium: Television

Program: The Journal

Broadcast Date: June 22, 1983

Guest(s): Ted Finn, Chapman Pincher, John Sawatsky

Host: Peter Kent

Duration: 5:33

Film credit: 20th Century Fox Ltd. and Republic Pictures Corporation.

Last updated:
Sept. 29, 2009