Sounds like they weren't doing a very good job, otherwise they could have just used the information they gathered to blackmail whatever Canada's version of congress is into giving them more money like their counterpart US spy agencies do.
And yes, mandatory ethics courses are an important part of helping people to understand the difference between unethical and ethical behaviour, especially if they can't or didn't learn that on their own. It's why ethics training is both offered and required in many professional roles.
They're spying or supporting those doing spying, right?
Debatable.