Former CSIS head was ‘a true gentleman’
Plain-spoken ex-diplomat advocated for government transparency at recent royal commissions
He was a diplomat who advised prime ministers, foreign ministers and even the United Nations. He was also, for a time, Canada’s spymaster. But Reid Morden never let it get to his head.
“He was so soft-spoken, and not at all a braggart. He was the epitome of foresight and wisdom. He never gave himself any notion of importance,” said Ann Fitz-Gerald, director of the Balsillie School of Foreign Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. “He was a true gentleman.”
Morden, a veteran diplomat and who served as the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service from 1988 to 1992, died Tuesday, at the age of 82.
Former prime minister Joe Clark, who first met Morden during their days as student Conservatives at Dalhousie Law School, said Morden always maintained a profound sense of decency and respect.
“Politics then, while it was competitive, it was also mutually respectful. That’s kind of hard to believe in this day and age,” said Clark of Morden, with whom he went on to have a decades-spanning professional relationship.
As minister of external affairs in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet, Clark said he considered himself fortunate to have Morden serve as his deputy minister.
“He was also a person who you could trust. If there were confidences, he kept them. If there was information — particularly in my role as minister — that I needed but might not be getting through normal channels, he would make sure I got it,” he said.
Morden, said Clark, wasn’t flashy or a braggart. Instead, he gave plain-spoken, direct, and above all helpful, advice.
“What was constant about Reid was his interest in public service. That’s what drew him to student politics. That’s what drew him to the department of then-external affairs. That’s what made him so effective there,” said Clark.
Long after most people have retired, Morden was still eager to take part in discussions of international relations and security, including with students at Laurier, where he lectured for the last several years of his life, said Fitz-Gerald.
Morden never missed a weekly virtual coffee chat with Laurier colleagues and students, Fitz-Gerald said.
During the course of his decadeslong career in public service, Morden was a high-level diplomat, the second-ever head of CSIS, the president of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and a key part of several royal commissions, including the inquiry into the mistreatment of Maher Arar by Canadian intelligence agencies.
Arar was tortured and imprisoned by the Syrian government after being extradited from the U.S. on the basis on false information supplied by the RCMP.
In 2005, Morden was appointed as an adviser to a royal commission headed by Justice Dennis O’Connor, which looked into Arar’s mistreatment.
After O’Connor issued his report detailing Arar’s mistreatment, the federal government censored parts of it on national security grounds. In a court appeal, Morden blasted that decision, saying the entire report deserved to see the light of day.
At another royal commission, into the bombing of an Air India flight which killed 329 people, Morden also argued that the government shouldn’t lower the bar for police seeking permission for wiretaps.
Morden’s belief in openness and maintaining a high bar for wiretap permission were signs of his inherent integrity, said Lorne Waldman, who represented Arar at the O’Connor inquiry.
Morden is survived by his wife Margaret, their sons Michael and Geoffrey, and grandchildren.