# CSIS The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's primary intelligence agency, responsible for domestic and foreign human intelligence collection, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism. Established in 1984 after the McDonald Commission recommended separating intelligence from law enforcement (the RCMP Security Service had been caught conducting illegal operations against Quebec separatists), CSIS operates alongside the [[CSE]] (signals intelligence) in Canada's two-agency intelligence architecture. CSIS gained foreign intelligence collection authority in 2015 under the Anti-terrorism Act, expanding beyond its original domestic mandate. The agency has been at the center of Canadian political controversy over Chinese interference operations — a 2023 intelligence leak revealed CSIS reporting on Chinese government efforts to influence Canadian elections, prompting a public inquiry into foreign interference that exposed tensions between intelligence secrecy and democratic accountability. ## See Also - [[CSE]] — Canadian signals intelligence - [[Five Eyes Alliance]] — the intelligence-sharing framework - [[MI5]] — UK domestic equivalent - [[Global Intelligence Hub]] — full agency index