1972

The RCMP Security Service burns down a barn in rural Quebec to prevent a meeting between suspected Front de libération du Québec separatists and Black Panthers. The act comes to symbolize years of unconstrained "disruption" activities by the Mounties.

1981

A federal commission of inquiry recommends the disgraced RCMP security service be spun out into a highly scrutinized spy agency.

1984

After Parliament passes the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, CSIS spies are constrained by Federal Court warrant processes, an inspector-general's oversight, and the politically appointed Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC).

1985

The Air India terrorist attacks kill more than 330 people, a made-in-Canada massacre that occurred amid fighting between CSIS and the RCMP.

2001

Parliament passes the Anti-Terrorism Act, giving Canada's foreign-intelligence spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment, greater latitude to share the fruits of bulk-collected electronic communications with CSIS.

2005

A CSIS mole posing as a Toronto terrorist is lent to the RCMP, a new template that sets the stage for national security investigations – and the "Toronto 18" bust.

2008

Fearing too much intelligence sharing and warrantless wiretapping, a retired Supreme Court justice urges that CSE and CSIS clarify their relationship.

2010

Another retired Supreme Court justice finds that CSIS's intelligence exchanges with Egypt "likely contributed" to the torture of a detained Canadian.

A CSIS director tells Parliament his spies "have saved Canadian lives" in Afghanistan – highlighting the domestic spy agency's growing number of foreign forays.

The Supreme Court faults CSIS for having unlawfully interviewed a teenaged Canadian prisoner in Guantanamo Bay.

A former CSIS director is caught venting about judges and the public living in an "Alice in Wonderland" reality, in a leaked U.S. State Department cable.

2012

The Conservative government shuts down the CSIS inspector-general's office, one of the agency's two watchdogs.

2013

A Federal Court judge accuses CSIS of breaching its "duty of candour" to unlawfully obtain a surveillance power.

2014

CSIS's remaining watchdog criticizes it for unlawfully carrying guns in unspecified overseas countries.