IB History Domestic Anti-communism Notes

Cold War Security at Home

The Gouzenko Affair

1. 5 September 1945: Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko left the embassy in Ottawa with more than 100 secret documents.
2. The documents exposed espionage: They identified Soviet efforts to obtain atomic, military, and diplomatic information in Canada.
3. Prime Minister Mackenzie King reacted cautiously: He feared both a diplomatic crisis and damage to public confidence.
4. Gouzenko received protection: His evidence became central to Canadian, British, and US counter-espionage investigations.
5. The affair internationalized Canadian security: Canada became an early testing ground for Western Cold War intelligence cooperation.
6. Public fear increased: Communism was increasingly presented as a hidden network rather than only a legal political ideology.
7. Historical significance: The scandal began Canada's post-war security state before McCarthyism reached its height in the United States.

The Kellock-Taschereau Commission

1. February 1946: The government created a royal commission led by judges Roy Kellock and Robert Taschereau.
2. Emergency powers shaped the inquiry: Suspects could be detained and questioned without normal safeguards.
3. Eighteen people were charged: The accused included civil servants, scientists, and Fred Rose, a member of Parliament.
4. Evidence was controversial: Some testimony was obtained through isolation, pressure, and restricted access to counsel.
5. The commission confirmed real espionage: It also normalized extraordinary procedures in the name of national security.
6. Civil libertarians objected: They argued that guilt by association weakened due process and parliamentary democracy.
7. The central tension: Canada confronted a genuine Soviet intelligence operation through methods that endangered legal rights.

Federal Security Screening

1. By 1948: The federal government had formalized loyalty and reliability checks for public servants.
2. The RCMP built extensive files: Investigators recorded political memberships, friendships, reading habits, and travel.
3. Suspicion exceeded criminal conduct: A person could lose advancement or employment without being charged with an offence.
4. Communist affiliation carried the highest risk: Socialists, peace activists, and critics of NATO could also attract surveillance.
5. Departments applied standards unevenly: Secrecy made decisions difficult to challenge and encouraged self-censorship.
6. The system expanded over time: Security screening became a permanent administrative practice rather than a temporary emergency.
7. Canadian anti-Communism was bureaucratic: It relied more on files, clearances, and quiet exclusion than public congressional hearings.

Labour, Quebec, and Political Dissent

1. Organized labour became a major battleground: Union leaders disputed whether communists strengthened militancy or endangered democratic control.
2. The Canadian Congress of Labour expelled communist-led unions: US pressure and Cold War divisions accelerated the purge.
3. Maurice Duplessis used the Padlock Law: Quebec authorities closed premises alleged to promote communist ideas.
4. The Supreme Court struck the law down in 1957: The decision affirmed federal authority and limits on provincial repression.
5. Peace activism drew scrutiny: Campaigns against nuclear weapons were sometimes treated as Soviet-influenced activity.
6. Universities were monitored: Professors and students could face reputational or employment consequences for left-wing associations.
7. Anti-Communism narrowed debate: Critics of government policy often had to prove loyalty before their arguments were considered.

The Purge of LGBTQ+ Public Servants

1. Security officials treated homosexuality as a vulnerability: They claimed that secrecy exposed employees to blackmail by foreign intelligence.
2. The claim lacked evidence: Investigators converted social prejudice into an official national security doctrine.
3. From the 1950s: The RCMP questioned, followed, and dismissed suspected LGBTQ+ members of the public service and military.
4. A detection device was pursued: The so-called fruit machine attempted to identify homosexuality through physiological responses.
5. Thousands were investigated: Careers, pensions, and personal lives were damaged without proof of espionage.
6. The purge continued for decades: It survived changing governments because it was embedded in confidential administrative routines.
7. Historical judgment: Domestic anti-Communism reinforced discrimination by defining conformity as evidence of loyalty.

The Herbert Norman Case

1. E. Herbert Norman was a senior diplomat: His earlier involvement in left-wing student circles attracted repeated suspicion.
2. Canadian investigations cleared him: Officials found no reliable evidence that he had spied for the Soviet Union.
3. US senators revived the allegations: American McCarthyism crossed the border through intelligence sharing and public accusation.
4. Norman died in Cairo in 1957: His death intensified Canadian anger about US interference and reckless claims.
5. Lester Pearson defended him: The foreign minister challenged Washington's handling of unverified security information.
6. The case exposed alliance costs: Close intelligence cooperation could weaken Canadian control over its own personnel decisions.
7. Its wider meaning: A security culture built on suspicion could destroy reputations even when no charge was proven.

Canada and the United States Compared

1. Both states feared Soviet penetration: Each expanded intelligence agencies, loyalty checks, and surveillance after 1945.
2. The United States used public spectacle: Congressional hearings and Senator Joseph McCarthy turned accusation into national political theatre.
3. Canada relied on administrative secrecy: Screening and dismissal usually occurred away from public scrutiny.
4. Canada had no exact McCarthy equivalent: Yet quieter procedures could be harder for affected people to contest.
5. Continental integration mattered: US clearance standards influenced Canadian defence, science, and diplomatic employment.
6. Political culture limited extremes: Parliamentary government and weaker anti-Communist populism reduced mass public hearings.
7. The difference was method, not absence: Canadian repression was less visible but still extensive and consequential.

The McDonald Commission and the Creation of CSIS

1. RCMP Security Service abuses came to light in the 1970s. Revelations of illegal break-ins, opened private mail, and a barn burned to disrupt a planned meeting between Quebec separatists and the Black Panthers exposed the security service's own lawbreaking.
2. The federal government appointed the McDonald Commission in 1977. Justice David McDonald led an inquiry into RCMP security and intelligence activities after the wrongdoing became public.
3. The commission reported in 1981. It documented widespread illegal surveillance, break-ins, and mail interception carried out without judicial authorization or clear legal limits.
4. McDonald recommended a civilian intelligence agency. He argued that security intelligence work should be separated from police powers to reduce the risk of abuse.
5. Parliament created CSIS in 1984. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act ended the RCMP's formal security intelligence role and replaced it with a civilian agency subject to statutory oversight.
6. Oversight mechanisms were built into the new system. A Security Intelligence Review Committee and an Inspector General were established to monitor CSIS conduct, a structure earlier decades of screening had lacked.
7. Access to Information legislation opened part of the historical record. The 1983 Access to Information Act let historians and journalists request declassified files, gradually revealing the scale of earlier screening practices.
8. Historians debate how much changed in practice. Some argue CSIS represented a genuine legal break from the earlier system, while others note continuities in targeting and secrecy that persisted after 1984.
9. The reforms did not erase the era's costs. LGBTQ+ public servants purged before 1992, when Ottawa formally ended workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, received no comparable inquiry or redress for decades.
10. The RCMP's "Dirty Tricks" campaign targeted Quebec separatists specifically. Operation Ham in 1972 saw officers steal Parti Quebecois membership lists, while other operations forged documents and spread disinformation.
11. A separate provincial inquiry examined Quebec abuses. The Keable Commission, sitting from 1977 to 1981, investigated RCMP conduct in Quebec alongside the federal McDonald Commission.
12. CSIS itself faced later scrutiny. The agency's monitoring of environmental and Indigenous activist groups in subsequent decades renewed debate about the line between security intelligence and political surveillance.

Historiography and Overall Judgment

1. Reg Whitaker emphasizes the security state: He argues that secret bureaucratic systems shaped citizenship and dissent over the long term.
2. Gary Marcuse highlights civil liberties: The Gouzenko response showed how genuine espionage could justify excessive state power.
3. Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile center sexuality: They demonstrate that national security policy institutionalized homophobia.
4. A traditional interpretation stresses necessity: Soviet espionage was real, organized, and directed against sensitive Canadian institutions.
5. A revisionist interpretation stresses overreach: Evidence of spying did not justify punishment based on identity or lawful association.
6. The strongest judgment distinguishes threat from response: Canada needed counter-espionage, but secrecy weakened accountability and widened discrimination.
7. Paper 3 significance: Domestic anti-Communism reveals how the Cold War reshaped Canadian institutions, rights, and relations with the United States.