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| Israel Halperin |
| Halperin was born on 5 January 1911 in Westmount, Québec. He joined the Canadian Army in 1942 where he worked with a variety of secret explosives and weapons development. Halperin achieved the rank of Major in 1945 and eventually accepted a post as a mathematics professor at Queen's University. The commission believed that Halperin was part of a group of informants organized under Gordon Lunan and their evidence was based predominantly on Lunan's testimony and documents from the Soviet embassy which detailed Lunan's meeting with Halperin. Halperin was possibly the most difficult and frustrating suspect the commission interrogated. He continually refused to speak before the commission and demanded access to legal counsel. When the commission finally allowed Halperin to see his lawyer, he refused to answer their questions. His refusals played an important part in the commission's conclusion that Halperin had violated the Official Secrets Act. Unlike many of the other suspects, however, Halperin did not lose his job. The chancellor of Queen's University, Charles Dunning, convinced the Board of Governors to reinstate Halperin fearing embarrassment to the university. |
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