Cold War Canada: The Making of a National Insecurity State, 1945-1957

William Glover is a military historian in Ottawa.

This is a provocative, stimulating interpretation of McCarthyism in
Canada, from the Gouzenko defection to Herbert Norman’s suicide. It
begins with the transition from hot war against Germany, with the Soviet
Union nominally an ally, to a cold war against the USSR; it then details
the Gouzenko affair, and reviews the cold war and Canada, official
Ottawa, Canadian society, and finally the end of the first cold-war era
(the Korean War and the Norman suicide). Throughout the book runs the
dark leitmotif of the United States, armed with repressive
anti-communist legislation, imposing its security concerns and values on
a Canada that was almost powerless to resist. The authors, who write
from the perspective of the political and social left, use hindsight and
apply 1990s values to the events of 40 or more years ago. While it is
not historically correct to examine events outside the context within
which they occurred, their method places in stark relief the
anti-liberal climate of the period. McCarthyism’s intolerance did
happen here. The account of the commission to investigate the Gouzenko
affair, composed of Supreme Court Justices Kellock and Taschereau, is
most disturbing. Their flagrant presumption of guilt and the setting
aside of normal standards of evidence make one wonder how they could
have risen to prominence, let alone judicial eminence. If it was the
climate of the times, there is a salutary lesson for us all, especially
in our era of political correctness.

The book’s research is exhaustive and at times its detail is
exhausting. The extensive notes will be useful to all who follow their
steps. No future discussion of Canada in the period can overlook this
book. However, future work should restore some balance, which is lost by
overlooking the international events that created the context of the
actions recorded here. In the late 1940s authoritarian political regimes
and communist political philosophy were confused. Following World War
II, Communism did appear as a very real enemy, against which
extraordinary measures were thought necessary. This record of using
illiberal measures to preserve a liberal state emphasizes our need for
better analysis and understanding than was then available.