Monday, November 14, 2011

Tommy Douglas NDP leader was spied upon for decades

 Recently declassified material shows the RCMP were spying on Tommy Douglas the leader of the Federal NDP as he called for a probe of the RCMP in April of 1963. The RCMP were drafting memos casting suspicion on Douglas' own activities.
    The Library and Archives Canada had fought for six years to keep the RCMP files on Douglas secret. The new pages became available when a federal judge ordered a review the nine volume dossier with a view to releasing more. The pages released are still fragmentary. Over two hundred pages of the dossier remain entirely secret.
     Although Douglas was a premier of Saskatchewan and a hero to many for bringing the first universal health care scheme to the province of Saskatchewan he was watched by RCMP spies for more than four decades. His ideas were obviously regarded as a threat to the powers that be. For more see this article.  For more about Douglas see this site.

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