I’ve been quick to criticize American history for HUAC, and CoIntelPro, and the general internal espionage of the early FBI, as well not recognizing the lessons of history when they swing around again, so I should probably also point out that we do a lot of the same stuff.
As you can see in the story that broke this week about the RCMP’s history of spying on various peaceable activists associations, notably including feminist organizations.
I am more than a little upset at how “in stride” everyone seems to be taking this, and how the main hook for reporting on the story seems to be a humour angle about a semi-famous Canadian singer being one of the subjects of the internal espionage.
Where are the questions about parliamentary oversight of the RCMP back in the day, and more, where are the questions about oversight of CSIS and what kind of tricks it is probably up to in this arena right now? I’d love to see someone hounding SIRC to make some statements about the extent to which CSIS compiles dossiers on Canadian activist organizations.
I note that one of the guys who broke the story did a similar job earlier on the RCMP’s on-campus spying activities. You should totally read that book, if you can find a copy.
Oh, I should also note that this is hardly the limit of what the RCMP got up to in terms of internal espionage–you know that guy that we all decided was the greatest Canadian ever? Well, they spied on him for 30 years. Just saying.
