Spies Like Us

When I was growing up in the Great White North, one of the things that drove me crazy was hearing people suggest that Canada was always about five years behind whatever they were doing in the U.S. Now that I've been living and working in the U.S. for almost two decades, I'm afraid I can see what people were talking about.

Take these stories from the Toronto Star, one of Canada's main newspapers.

Apparently, more than 14,000 Canadians applied last year to join the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada's spy agency. Only 100 were accepted. I guess it's good that so many people applied, but it has been almost six years since the Sept. 11 attacks and all that ... so it seems rather late for a spike in interest. (To its credit, CSIS gets high marks from many in the Muslim Canadian community for improved relations since Sept. 11, and 45 percent of intelligence officers are women. Very Canadian.)

Then again, I did notice that the Star also reported that Canada will start its own no-fly list in June. (Again, one is inclined to point out that, well, it has been six years...) A lawyer says it appears that Canadian airlines have been using the U.S. list. (Shh, don't tell anybody ... Canadians hate to give the U.S. credit for anything that Canada does.)

So I guess this means that Maher Arar, the Canadian who was detained by U.S. officials in New York in 2002 and sent to Syria where he was tortured before his release, won't have to worry. The U.S. has refused to take Arar off its no-fly list, even though a long and expensive Canadian judicial investigation completely cleared him of all terrorist connections. Until he was cleared by the investigation late last year, Arar still had to go through extra security in Canada ... because, his lawyer believes, officials were using that list from the country no Canadian wants to publicly acknowledge borrowing from.

6:09 PM ET | 05-14-2007 | permalink