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THE COLD WAR IS OVER but the historical assessment of its impact on postwar Canadian society has scarcely begun. Recent studies suggest that Canada's 'home front' was not entirely spared the ignominy of civil rights abuses commonly associated with Cold War America.(f.1) Although in Canada no McCarthyesque figure or televised loyalty board hearings captured the public spotlight, there were many groups and individuals - among them Communists, labour leaders, academics, immigrants, and artists - whose varied left - wing political views or affiliations subjected them to state persecution and other organized forms of 'red - baiting.' Jobs were lost, careers ended, and lives ruined, the most notable example being Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman who committed suicide in 1957 when the United States Senate reopened an investigation of his political loyalty.(f.2) While scholarly work has elucidated Ottawa's handling of political and ideological threats during the Cold War, another important subject has received only passing notice: the federal government's security investigation and subsequent firing of homosexuals during the 1950s and 1960s. When the episode was recently brought to public attention, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney denounced it as 'one of the greatest outrages and violations of human rights' which even 'the passage of time ... [has not made] any less odious.'(f.3)
This 'odious' event was a peculiar product of Cold War era 'insecurities.' Government officials maintained that homosexuals (almost exclusively males) fearing public exposure were security risks owing to their susceptibility to blackmail by hostile intelligence agencies. Along with political subversives and foreign spies, they were considered legitimate targets of investigation. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took up the challenge wholeheartedly. A separate unit was formed to deal with the homosexual issue. And by the late 1960s the total number of RCMP files concerning homosexuals reached roughly 9000, only one - third of which involved government employees. In conjunction with this investigation, the federal government sponsored a research project that sought to 'detect' homosexuality through the photographic measurement of eye movements of people shown hetero - and homoerotic pictures. The research was headed by Carleton University professor Robert Wake and was backed by officials from a number of federal departments. Dubbed the 'fruit machine' by the Mounties, the project amounted to a four - year effort to...