Kirsch, who grew up in Toronto, left a job in the financial sector in London, England, after the 2005 terror attacks in that city and joined the Canadian Security Intelligence Services, CSIS. He describes himself as \u201cpart of a post-9\/11 wave of civically minded Canadians who had left our day jobs to do our part in the age of terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n
London\u2019s career in the field was longer, symmetrically spanning 17 years on either side of 9\/11, which is, obviously, the Western world\u2019s iconic intelligence failure of the current era.<\/p>\n
In the United States, the FBI is the domestic security service, much like our RCMP, while the CIA works almost exclusively outside the country. Similarly, in Israel, the Mossad deals with foreign intelligence and covert activities, while Shin Bet manages internal security. \u201cIn Canada, we have one organization [CSIS], and it\u2019s responsible for covering the globe while operating largely domestically,\u201d writes Kirsch.<\/p>\n
If most Canadians don\u2019t know what CSIS is, new Canadians can be expected to know even less. The author shares a cute anecdote about how he shorthands his role for Arabic speakers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Arabic term for intelligence service is Mukh\u0101bar\u0101t,\u201d he writes. Obviously, somebody from an Arabic speaking country might understandably be anxious when someone knocks on the door and declares themselves representatives of the security service.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d simply say, \u2018Canadian Mukh\u0101bar\u0101t. Nice Mukh\u0101bar\u0101t.\u2019 That might get a laugh and a foot in the door,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In typical Canadian fashion, Kirsch downplays the drama. He\u2019s no James Bond.<\/p>\n \u201cThese aren\u2019t high-stakes negotiations over baccarat and cocktails at a casino. It\u2019s much less glamorous. I was in the coffee and conversations business,\u201d he writes. Nevertheless, he charms with amusing anecdotes, foibles and practical jokes (he and his former colleagues are serious and professional, he insists, but they need to blow off steam). One gets to know the man and the organization.<\/p>\n While Kirsch is modest in speaking of his work and that of CSIS, he makes their significance clear.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada is one of the safest countries in the world. This is not because we don\u2019t face threats, but because we do an admirable job of protecting our citizens against them,\u201d he writes. \u201cThat is how law enforcement and intelligence agencies tend to work. If we do our job, you won\u2019t know we were ever needed in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most notable incidents in recent history when the work of CSIS did hit the front pages was the foiled Toronto 18 plot in 2006, when a cadre of radicalized Canadians plotted to explode truck bombs in southern Ontario. That was a disaster that didn\u2019t happen because of intelligence, but Kirsch acknowledges tragedies where intelligence failed.<\/p>\n In 2014, for example, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a soldier who was standing guard at the National War Memorial, and then stormed Parliament Hill but was killed before he could reach the heart of our democracy.<\/p>\n And just because Canadians have been blessedly fortunate not to suffer more terrorism doesn\u2019t mean Canadians aren\u2019t involved in some of the horrors we see abroad. A Vancouverite was convicted in absentia for involvement in a suicide bomb attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012. Five Israelis and the bus driver were killed and more than 35 other Israelis injured.<\/p>\n Kirsch admits he was worn down by the bureaucracy of the job, but his decision to leave the agency was based on family obligations, when his wife became pregnant. He clearly holds CSIS and his former colleagues in great esteem.<\/p>\n London\u2019s reflections are not so kind. He calls the CIA in the last couple of decades \u201ca cult of personality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe senior ranks became an ever more homogenous collection cut from the same mold, focused more on ambition than the mission, the organization, or the workforce,\u201d writes London. \u201cWhile there were thankfully brilliant exceptions, the cadre had drunk their own Kool-Aid as to their own brilliance and worth.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"image](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/jan-27-books.27.spy-I-Was-Never-Here-cover.jpg\")
<\/a>The lack of awareness around CSIS is one of the reasons Kirsch wrote his book. If the CIA knocks on your door, many people around the world would know to be instantly on alert. If CSIS knocks on a Canadian\u2019s door, Kirsch admits, it usually requires a quick spiel about what CSIS is and what it does. He also wrote the book because, when he and most of the other agents he knows first got interested, there was little to read on the subject of what they might expect.<\/p>\n