Volume 2

Volume 2, covering 1959 to 1979, covers three main issues: re-examining individuals sentenced during the Corby case (defection of Igor Gouzenko); the possibility that Jean Daviault stole and sold Mackenzie King's private diaries and; the public questioning by MP Tom Cossitt (PC-Leeds) of Featherbed in the late 1970s.

1959 to 1970 was characterized by the re-examination of existing files of individuals who fit the general criteria of Soviet agents discovered in the American government. Resources were then devoted to gathering updated information – for instance, as to whether individuals with existing files still harboured Communist sympathies. The direction of the operation was often unclear, and investigators worked blindly to fit suspected individuals within a broad criterion and hoped to find leads from there. They were hindered in their decision to focus on the 1930s and 1940s, due to the time lag with the investigation. As the investigation took place decades after the period of focus, any persons of interest or materials were harder to track down. In many cases, individuals had passed.

In 1972, the focus shifted onto Jean Daviault, a former employee of the Dominion Archives. Had he sold the missing volumes of Mackenzie King’s diary? Files focused more on fully identifying Daviault, who had died in 1971, and less on any potential connection to the Soviets

By the late 1970s, the existence of Featherbed had become public knowledge. Publicly, Solicitor General Allan Lawrence stated the objective was identifying and neutralizing any foreign agent from any foreign country in an apparent downplay of any Communist and/or Soviet threat. The origins of Featherbed, and especially the root of the investigations lying in fear of the successful Soviet penetration of the American government being repeated in Canada, was not made public.

All of the documents in this section are from Volume 2, linked below.