Diversifying Intelligence: History, Discrimination and the Canadian Intelligence Community

This project interrogates at the historical treatment of women and minorities within the Canadian intelligence apparatus and studies how this has contributed to the diversity problems (and therefore security problems) that we see within the Canadian intelligence community today. [...] Most of these groups were the object of scrutiny by the Canadian intelligence apparatus because of the fear of the 1 Unfortunately there is very little publicly available demographic data regarding CSE, so analyzing that will have to be the focus of future research. [...] Analysis In their 2019 report, The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians reviewed the state of diversity within the various security organizations in Canada that have an intelligence function (National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians 2019). [...] The numbers in Canada, of women who specifically work in intelligence are most likely similar to that of the UK, who show that 53% of civil servants who are women, that number drops for intelligence to 37% (Intelligence and Security Council and Blears, 2015). [...] This does risk being seen as ‘box to check’ and then forget, so it must be incorporated with other interventions o The incorporation of the history of the Canadian intelligence community into training, with analysis of the historical discriminatory practices and their lasting impacts.