It’s like that thing in the drive thru, where the person in the car ahead paid for your coffee. The President pardons the president behind him so the next president can pardon him.

Well CSIS isn’t really our CIA, because it doesn’t operate in other countries. It’s more like the UK’s MI5. Our FBI is the RCMP. And our NSA would be the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

CSIS and the CSE are kept in the loop via the Five Eyes, but they just keep track of shit going down in Canada, and let the CIA, MI6, and ASIS (Australia’s CIA) do the dirty work overseas.