Study reveals new details of overseas Cold War intelligence effort by Canadians
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OTTAWA — Canada enlisted citizens who travelled to Communist countries during the Cold War to gather needed intelligence — a shadowy element of a little-known government program detailed in a newly declassified history.
The study by intelligence expert Wesley Wark reveals officials became sufficiently nervous about the tasking of Canadians — and the prospect of being caught snooping overseas — that they had John Diefenbaker, prime minister at the time, give his blessing.
Wark, who teaches at the University of Ottawa, began work in the late 1990s on the government-commissioned study of how Canada’s intelligence community evolved in the years following the Second World War.
Much of the book-length manuscript, based on classified files, was released under the Access to Information Act in 2005, but considerable portions were considered too sensitive to disclose.
