Volume 5

After Clark’s minority government collapsed and was defeated in the 1980 election, Robert Kaplan succeeded Allan Lawrence as Solicitor General. During the transition, RCMP officials noticed one of the Feather Bed files previously lent to Lawrence had not been returned. Another Featherbed file that was returned was received with its pages out of the original order. Eventually, Lawrence confirmed in February 1981 that he possessed the missing material, but wanted to retain it for his own purposes. After a legal opinion by the Department of Justice confirmed he had no such authority, he returned it on 3 April 1981, thirteen months after his tenure as Solicitor General ended.

Simultaneously, MP Tom Cossitt’s public fixation with Featherbed continued with questions posed in the House of Commons. The answers, provided by the RCMP and delivered via the Solicitor General, were largely kept to a brief “no comment.” Kaplan, however, expressed a desire to be more forthcoming. RCMP officials disagree and sought to convince Kaplan that the best strategy of dealing with Cossitt’s persistent questions was through non-committal answers.

Finally, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP (also known as the McDonald Commission) issued its final findings in 1981. The Commission was formed after the RCMP Security Service faced controversy over a number of its activities throughout the 1970s. The Commission recommended the formation of a civilian security service. In response to an October 1981 question posed by Cossitt, the RCMP confirmed that the entire Featherbed file was intact and would be kept so in the transfer to the civilian service. However, Solicitor General Kaplan did not rule out the eventual destruction or reduction of its files.

All of the documents in this section are from Volume 5, linked below.