Condensation is definitely a concern in colder weather. If you create a thermal break that isn't properly sealed against air leakage, warm air from the house will seep behind the walls, bringing lots and lots of moisture with it. Meanwhile the bricks, which are now insulated, are going to be very very cold, and when warm air gets cold it lets go of its moisture - and thus we get condensation.
That condensation would then get trapped inside the walls - and long before you have a problem with brick deterioration you're going to have mold issues that lead to health issues.
The best thing to do to prevent this is to insulate with a substance that also serves as a vapor barrier, which will prevent any air (and thus any moisture) from leaking into the closed cavity. The best product for this IMO is spray foam insulation, because it fills in all the nooks and crannies and IS the vapor barrier.
Alternatively, you could use fiberglass and cover it over with plastic to form a vapor barrier, and this can work IF you properly seal it all the way around the edges, seams and any holes that occur.
Either approach, however, is going to require you to sacrifice living space, as for a proper thermal break you're going to probably want at least 4" of insulation.
Now - with regard to insulating your spare rooms. Don't insulate your interior walls. Put proper insulation in the external walls of those rooms, so that they don't lose heat to the outside. Yes you will be heating them, but if they're properly insulated they're not going to cost much to heat and there are numerous other concerns with turning an inside room into a "cold" room - it's a finished space, after all, and you don't want to risk damaging that by letting it be freezing cold in there.
A layer of dust or dirt on top of your insualtion would be quite normal in a vented attic. If the dirt was inpregnated in the actual insulation, so that it was acting like a filter, then that would indicated air movement from one side of the insulation to the other. This would be seen most often around holes in the ceiling from light fixtures, plumbing/electrical or any areas open to air leakage from the interior to the attic. I think what you are seeing laying on top of your insulation is just plain old dust from outdoors entering through the venting. not a problem.
Best Answer
The only way to know the R-value of your wall is to know everything that was used to build it. Some of the ways you can determine this include by drilling a hole in it or looking behind an electrical outlet. That said, if your house is typical Canadian construction, here's my rough estimate:
So the all-inclusive "whole-wall" R-value of your wall, if it's like this one, would be R-16.5. However, typically when discussing R-values, you only include the insulation--taking into account thermal bridging by studs. In that case, we would describe this wall as an R-14 wall. If your wall has different cavity insulation, or only has 2x4 studs, or has been retrofitted with rigid foam or mineral wool outside the sheathing, then the numbers would be different.