After two hours of high intensity shelling by joint-party interrogators on Monday, Richard Fadden, Canada’s top spy, maintained a firm grasp on one particular message: the Canadian public needs to know.

“I would argue it is good public policy for Canadians to be attuned to the threats that the country faces,” Mr. Fadden told members of the Commons’ Public Safety committee in his opening remarks. “[The Canadian Security Intelligence Service] believe[s] there is merit in Canadians being more informed about the threats to our national security.”

On the surface, it appears that is the reason Mr. Fadden was in front of the CBC’s cameras last month: Canada’s spy agency, under increasing pressure to be more transparent and accountable, was simply trying to open itself to the public and offer a blunt assessment of the type of world Canadians live in.

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