This week's tonic by columnist Andrew Mitrovica: "Canada’s spies and the hypocrites who adore them - Did China interfere in Canada’s elections? We don’t know. But journalists must not rely on friendly leaks for the truth."
"I am the author of one of two books of any consequence written about
the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the nation’s
equivalent of Britain’s MI5. My 2002 exposé, Covert Entry, revealed a rogue agency rife with laziness, incompetence, corruption and lawbreaking."
"Sadly, too few reporters, editors, columnists or editorial writers in
Canada have made the effort to understand how CSIS functions with
impunity and hold it to account.
"I am sharing this history and context because, lately, there has been
a geyser of leaking of “top secret” stuff going on in Canada that is
causing quite a tizzy.
"...This is all to say that Canadians should be cautious about accepting as
fact stuff that is leaked to “friendly” journalists and news
organisations who are not as cautious as they should be – despite having
the imprimatur of an “intelligence” service stamped on it.
"...The consensus among a preening batch of grandstanding reporters,
columnists, editorial writers and politicians is that China’s
“interference” in Canada’s elections is bad because China is a “bad
actor” on the international stage.
"I missed all the hyperventilating outrage when Canada’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, joined
those Alexis-de-Tocqueville-like paragons of democracy, Brazil’s former
President Jair Bolsonaro and former US President Donald Trump and tried
to engineer what amounted to a coup d’état and install their man, Juan
Guaido, as the president of Venezuela.
"Freeland was praised by the same apoplectic columnists and editorial
writers for interfering – openly and secretly – in Venezuela’s domestic
affairs since, like China, the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, is a
“bad actor”.
"This is a news story oozing with congratulatory glee, published
widely among sympathetic Canadian news outlets, heralding Freeland’s
“key role” in playing a “behind the scenes” part in a failed attempt to
depose the socialist leader.
"When Canada interfered in Venezuela’s right to choose who will be
president, most Canadian establishment columnists, editorial writers and
politicians applauded. Canada is, they agree, a “good actor”.
"The sanctimony is as galling as it is instructive.
"But, these days, you won’t hear so much as a whisper about Canada’s
not-so-secret record on the “interference” score since a capital city
and newsrooms filled with amnesiac, spy-adoring hypocrites are too busy
pointing an accusatory finger at China."