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Wikileaks: Canada’s spy chief spent his days mocking Canada

By John Michael McGrath
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Wikileaks: Canada’s spy chief spent his days mocking Canada

The torrent of gossipy revelations from Wikileaks’ latest outpouring—this time, classified diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies all over the world—has mostly left Canada untouched (so far). The big exception to this is the one and only cable to have been leaked from the Ottawa embassy, in which Canada’s then-CSIS chief Jim Judd had some choice words about, well, us.

From Wikileaks:

Director Judd ascribed an “Alice in Wonderland” worldview to Canadians and their courts, whose judges have tied CSIS “in knots,” making it ever more difficult to detect and prevent terror attacks in Canada and abroad.

And:

He observed that the images [of interrogations] would no doubt trigger “knee-jerk anti-Americanism” and “paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty,” as well as lead to a new round of heightened pressure on the government to press for [Omar] Khadr’s return to Canada.

It’s always nice to know that federal employees are putting down their fellow citizens to foreign governments. There’s something so Canadian about the fact that so far, the Canadian bombshell from Wikileaks has been that a high-placed government official was trying to ingratiate himself to Washington by making fun of us.

For his excellent service in mocking to the Canadian people, Judd was given the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service. Try not to think of this when reading that.

• Cable 08OTTAWA918 [Wikileaks] • Canada has ‘Alice In Wonderland’ attitude on terrorism: Wikileaks [Toronto Star] • WikiLeaks spills Canadian terror details [Toronto Sun] • Ex-CSIS head slams courts in U.S. memo: WikiLeaks [Globe and Mail]

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