# Intelligence/security conference gets mixed review



## MarkOttawa (3 Oct 2007)

The recent meeting of the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies
http://www.casis.ca/english/index.html

is assessed by one academic (usual copyright disclaimer):
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=3fef9c3e-25ef-4d7a-a78c-34834e5dc522



> Two hundred and seventy-five people attended the international conference of the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies last weekend in Calgary. CASIS is more than an ivory-tower organization interested in spies and spy-catching. It brings academics together with think-tankers, cops, soldiers, lawyers and bureaucrats, active and retired. Even Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, showed up to give a talk. His was by no means the least interesting.
> 
> The prize for evasiveness and sheer dullness was shared by uniformed and non-uniformed bureaucrats. Possibly the worst presentation was the group hug by representatives of the RCMP, CSIS and the FBI. To listen to these guys, whatever problems CSIS and the Mounties once might have had, happened long ago and far away, practically in another galaxy. Today, they share things. They have the greatest respect for one another. The FBI, of course, has the greatest respect for both these fine Canadian organizations. All three work hand in hand in a seamlessly co-ordinated and ever-successful struggle against bad guys, protecting civil society and doing endless good works.
> 
> ...



Sounds rather like a couple of CASIS meetings I once attended.

Mark
Ottawa


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## Falange (10 Oct 2007)

That is brutal. I am about to get my membership for CASIS, but the main issue I have is that they do not organize enough events here in the West, although some members are trying to change that. My intell. prof who attended the meeting in Edmonton mentioned that there was a lot of discussion regarding the ethics behing the acquisition of SIGINT including a lot of college students asking paranoic questions regarding the policies that some universities have of keeping their works in American databases i.e. Turnitin, and how this could be used against them in the future. Anyways, hopefully CASIS will be able to get its show together.


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