In 1945 a young, frightened Russian cipher clerk working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa left one night with several top-secret documents clutched secretly beneath his coat.  Igor Gouzenko carried a terrible secret with him, one he hoped would buy him asylum: evidence of a Soviet-led spy ring operating in Canada.  In response, the federal government instituted a royal commission to track down the spies. By invoking the War Measures Act in peacetime to detain suspects indefinitely, and implementing a royal commission to interrogate them, the government succeeded in circumventing the judicial system [royal commissions can force individuals to testify and can deny witnesses access to legal counsel - the commission's transcripts were later used at trial to prosecute the accused]. The following documents are related to Gouzenko's defection and the subsequent espionage commission.

The Defection

• Order-in-Council PC6444.
• Order-in-Council PC411.
• 10 September 1945, RCMP updates Norman Robertson (Secretary of State for External Affairs) on the Gouzenko situation.
• 11 September 1945, Norman Robertson explains the situation to officials from the USSR.
• 25 September 1945, Department of External Affairs memo on the legality, under international law, of holding a defector from the USSR.
• July-August 146, correspondence between Senator Arthur Roebuck and Minister of Justice Louis St. Laurent regarding the detention of several suspected spies.
• Canadian Embassy in Washington: Reports on reaction to the defection and espionage commission in the United States.
  • 4 March 1946
  • 22 July 1946
  • 7 August 1946

The Espionage Commission

• E.K. Williams' famous Top-Secret memorandum to Mackenzie King.
  • Williams, the president of the Canadian Bar Association, recommends the use of a royal commission to circumvent the due process protections of the legal system.
• The following oath was taken by all the RCMP officers who were detailed for guard duty at the Rockliffe Barracks where the suspected spies were being held under the authority of the War Measures Act.
• The following are some excerpts from the commission's final report. These files are not in PDF, but open to a regular HTML page.
  • Mandate: The mandate of the commission as defined by order in council PC 4111 on 5 February 1946.  
  • Motive: The question of what motivated the suspects to break their oaths was central the commission's investigation and covered an entire chapter of the final report.  These excerpts include testimony in which the suspects explain why they provided classified information to Russian agents.
  • Recommendations: The commissioners offered several recommendations in their final report. In addition to recommending the prosecution of most of the suspects they "interviewed", the commissioners recommend policies to protect national security.
  • Gouzenko: Igor Gouzenko presented an official statement to the RCMP in October 1945 to explain his motive for defecting.  Although recent historiography has suggested that there were several other reasons behind Gouzenko's decision to defect, the following statement provides insight into how he portrayed his actions.
  • Fred Rose: As the only Member of Parliament elected under the Labour Progressive Party's banner, and the only MP successfully prosecuted for espionage, Fred Rose enjoys a unique place in Canadian history.  The following is an excerpt from his testimony before the commission.

Public Response

• Press Coverage (web page, not PDF)
  • This section includes three statistical surveys. The first survey reviews eight major Canadian newspapers' coverage of the defection between February and April 1946.  The second survey examines the (Ottawa) Evening Citizen's coverage of the Soviet Union to demonstrate that issues dealing the Soviet Union dominated the headlines at this time. Finally, there is a survey on the number of stories dealing with civil liberties in Canada's leading legal journal (the Canadian Bar Review).
• Political Cartoons: A sample of political cartoons relating to the espionage commission of 1946.
• The Civil Rights Union published three newspaper advertisements at considerable cost to spur public debate on the government's abuse of individual rights.
  • Toronto Star, 15 June 1946
• Toronto Star, 27 June 1946
• Toronto Star, n.d.
• Letter from the Civil Rights Union to Justice Minister Ilsley, 15 February 1947 (LAC, Louis St. Laurent Papers, v.19, f.100-9).
• Summary of a memorandum from the Civil Rights Union to Mackenzie King criticizing the decision to implement a royal commission.
• Civil Rights Union Newsletter, Vol.1, No.4, December 1946.
• Civil Rights Union letter to Minister of Justice J.L. Ilsley, 5 February 1947.

Spy Trials

• Update on the current status of the spy trials, 29 September 1947 (source unknown).