Toronto City Life » Destination: espionage

Destination: espionage

Posted on April 28th, 2024 –

This morning I finished reading “Twenty-five years in the Secret Service” by Major Henri Le Caron (real name Thomas Miller Beach). While the focused history of Irish separatism in North America in the late 1800’s was mildly interesting, the book seemed to be mostly a recitation of names, dates, events, and places. Beach’s infiltration of various Fenian organizations was made to seem effortless, even predestined, and there was little to no discussion of any sort of tradecraft. Large parts of the narrative were outright dull.

But I did come away with the impression that the Canadian government of the time was reactive rather than proactive. For example, the second Fenian raid of Canada is described thus:

“Under the command of General John O’Neill, and a number of other gentlemen of high-sounding ranks, and distinctly Irish patronymics, the raid actually came off on the morning of the 1st of June, when about 3 A.M. some 600 or 800 Irish patriots, full of whisky and thirsting for glory, were quietly towed across the Niagara River to a point on the Canadian side called Waterloo!

“At 4 A.M. the Irish flag was planted on British soil by Colonel Owen Starr, commanding the contingent from Kentucky, one of the first to land. Unfortunately no Canadian troops were in the vicinity, and O’Neill’s command, which had by the next day decreased to some 500, marched upon and captured Fort Erie, containing a small detachment of the Welland battery. Matters, however, were not long allowed to go in favour of the invaders. In a very little time the 22nd Battalion of Volunteers of Toronto—a splendid band of citizen-soldiers—appeared upon the scene, and at Ridgeway, a few miles inland, there occurred a fair stand-up fight, in which the Fenians in the end got the worst of the day’s work. Ridgeway has frequently since been claimed by the Fenian orators as a glorious victory, but without justification. It is true that at first, flushed with their almost bloodless victory at Fort Erie, the Fenians advanced fiercely upon their opponents, and for the moment repulsed them; but in the end the Canadians triumphed, and succeeded in putting the invaders to flight, driving them back to Fort Erie a frenzied, ungovernable mob, only too thankful to be taken as prisoners by the United States war steamer Michigan, and protected from total annihilation at the hands of the, by this time, thoroughly aroused and wrathful Canadian citizens.”

The first Irish separatist raid had, according to Beach, been openly advertised and supplied by the U.S. government:

“This, which was the first invasion of Canada by the Fenian organisation, took place upon the morning of the 1st of June 1866. As I have already stated, the design had been flourished in the face of government and people for six months previously. All this time active preparations were proceeding, and thousands of stands of arms, together with millions of rounds of ammunition, had been purchased from the United States Government and located at different points along the Canadian border; while during the spring of the year, military companies, armed and uniformed as Irish Fenian soldiers, were drilled week by week in many of the large cities of the United States.”

It seems obvious, based on this historical record, that the Canadian government was either ill-prepared, overly incredulous, or too incompetent to deal with something that it had previously (and recently) encountered. Or maybe it was dealt with that way on purpose.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

I compared this to another book I’d finished recently, “By Way of Deception” by Victor Ostrovsky and Claire Hoy. Here an ex-Mossad katsa relates, among other things, how porous and welcoming Canada is, and how useful that is to foreign intelligence agencies.

It wouldn’t be the last time a thing like this has been brought up.

Considering that many non-state actors and proxies are in the mix these days, the idea that a large and liberal Canadian metropolis like Toronto might be teeming with the secretive interactions of opposing factions doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

It might be happening right in front of us. Would we even know what to look for?