Canada's Cold War Defectors

Igor Gouzenko’s defection might have been the first – and most famous – of the Cold War in Canada, but it was hardly the last. A number of records recently opened after Access to Information Act requests made by the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project casts brighter light on this aspect of Canada’s intelligence history. This article offers an overview of how the Government of Canada established its policy to manage defection and those who defected. It offers a number of possible leads for future research projects, some of which, but not all of which, will require the release of further material, whether under the Access to Information Act or a broader declassification framework from the Government of Canada.