The Fifth Estate: The Espionage Establishment

In early 1974, a one-hour CBC TV documentary told Canadians for the first time about the existence of a secretive national agency that tapped phone calls and monitored radio signals. Back then, the signals intelligence organization went by an unwieldy title — the Communications Branch of the National Research Council, or CBNRC. Today it's called the Communications Security Establishment, or CSE.

Status

Released

Production

CBC, Film Arts, Norfolk Research Unit