On the evening of September 5, 1945, just days after the Second World War ended, a young cipher clerk named Igor Gouzenko walked out of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa with more than a hundred secret documents hidden under his shirt. At first, nobody would listen: a newspaper and the Department of Justice turned him away, and he and his family hid in a neighbour's apartment while Soviet agents broke into their own. When officials finally read the documents, they found evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada seeking information about atomic research. Canada's wartime ally was spying on it. For many historians, this was one of the first public sparks of the Cold War, the long rivalry (about 1945 to 1991) between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies, fought with alliances, arms races, spies and propaganda rather than direct war between the two superpowers.
The Gouzenko Affair and the Red Scare
In 1946 the government set up a royal commission (the Kellock–Taschereau Commission) and used emergency powers to detain suspects without charges and question them without lawyers. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, the RCMP arrested 39 suspects and 18 were convicted (other counts differ slightly); among them was Fred Rose, a Montreal Member of Parliament from the Communist Labour-Progressive Party. The affair fed a Red Scare: public servants, union activists, and later gay men and lesbians in the civil service and military were investigated or fired as supposed "security risks". Historians still debate whether the government's response protected the country or trampled civil liberties.
Choosing sides: alliances
| Commitment | Date | What it meant for Canada |
|---|---|---|
| United Nations | Founded 1945; Canada a founding member | Canada hoped a strong UN would keep the peace and give middle powers a voice |
| NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) | Signed April 4, 1949; Canada one of 12 founding members | Collective defence: an attack on one member is an attack on all. Canada stationed troops and air squadrons in Western Europe. Canada also pushed for Article 2 on economic and social cooperation, sometimes called the "Canadian article" |
| Korean War | June 25, 1950 to the armistice of July 27, 1953 | Over 26,000 Canadians served under the UN command and 516 died. At Kapyong (April 1951) the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, helped stop a major Chinese advance and earned a US Presidential Unit Citation |
| Radar lines | Pinetree Line (early 1950s), Mid-Canada Line and DEW Line (Distant Early Warning, operational 1957) | Chains of radar stations across Canada to detect Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole; the DEW Line, stretching from Alaska to Baffin Island, was paid for and built mainly by the United States, raising questions about Arctic sovereignty |
| NORAD (North American Air Defence Command) | Announced August 1, 1957; formal agreement May 12, 1958 | Canadian and American air defences placed under a joint command, with an American commander and a Canadian deputy |
Pearson, Suez and peacekeeping
In 1956, Egypt took control of the Suez Canal. Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt, the Soviet Union threatened to intervene, and the United States was furious with its allies. Canada's foreign minister, Lester B. Pearson, proposed a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to separate the armies and let Britain and France withdraw without a superpower clash. The force, first commanded by Canadian general E. L. M. Burns, was the first large, armed UN peacekeeping force. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. Peacekeeping became central to how many Canadians saw their country: Canadians served in UN missions from the Congo to Cyprus (1964–1993). Not everyone agreed: many English Canadians felt Pearson had betrayed Britain by not backing it, a reaction that hurt the Liberals in the 1957 election.
Testing the relationship with the United States
- The Avro Arrow (1959): Canada designed one of the most advanced jet interceptors of its day. On February 20, 1959, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker cancelled it, citing soaring costs and arguing that missiles were replacing bombers. More than 14,000 Avro workers lost their jobs, many engineers moved to the US space program, and the completed aircraft were cut up. Canada instead accepted American Bomarc missiles.
- The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962): when the US discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba, Diefenbaker hesitated to put Canadian forces on full alert, resenting that Washington had not consulted Canada. Defence Minister Douglas Harkness quietly raised the alert anyway, and Diefenbaker approved it days later. Many Canadians were angered by the delay.
- Nuclear warheads (1963): the Bomarc missiles were designed to carry nuclear warheads, but Diefenbaker would not accept them. His government fell, and Pearson's Liberals won the April 1963 election and accepted the warheads. Canada later phased out its nuclear weapons by 1984.
- Vietnam (1960s–1970s): Canada did not send combat forces and served on international truce-supervision commissions. In 1965 Pearson publicly suggested a pause in American bombing of North Vietnam, angering President Lyndon Johnson. Canadian companies still sold military supplies to the US.
A middle power in a divided world
By the late 1960s Canada looked for more independence. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau cut Canada's NATO forces in Europe roughly in half in 1969, recognized the People's Republic of China in 1970 (before the United States did), created the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1968 to manage foreign aid, joined the founding of what became La Francophonie in 1970, and signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. Even sport became a Cold War contest: the 1972 Summit Series between Canadian NHL players and the Soviet national team ended with Paul Henderson's winning goal in Moscow, a moment millions of Canadians watched on television.