August 25 Ottawa The report of the […]

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When

1981-08-25

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August 25 Ottawa The report of the Royal Commission on Inquiry into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the McDonald Commission) was released after four years of hearings and research. The report revealed the RCMP Security Service had a long-established programme for collecting information on homosexuals. A special team had even been established in 1960 to investigate all homosexuals who lived in Ottawa, not just those employed by the government. Reporting activities were carried on even after the amendments to the Criminal Code in 1969 changed the legal status of homosexual activities. One of the report's 285 recommendations was that "existing Security Service files on homosexuals be reviewed and that those which do not fall within the guidelines for opening and maintaining files be destroyed." Canada's Solicitor General Robert Kaplan promised that the files would not be retained.

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Ottawa

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Robert Kaplan

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Criminal Code Royal Commission on Inquiry into Certain Activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the McDonald Commission)

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"When in Doubt, File" (editorial), Globe and Mail, metro ed., 28 August 1981, p. 6."RCMP Hoped 'Fruit Machine' Would Identify Homosexuals," Globe and Mail, metro ed., 24 April 1992, pp. A1–A2 "RCMP Burning 'Roomfuls' of Files," Moose-Jaw Times Herald, 19 January 1984, p. 3 Michael Mandel, "Discrediting the McDonald Commission," Canadian Forum, March 1982, pp. 14–17 Bills Loos, "Opening the Mounties' Closet: The McDonald Commission Pinpoints an RCMP Security Obsession: Homosexuals," Body Politic, no. 77 (1981), p. 9 Ross Laver, "Blacks, Unionists Among 800,000 Listed in Mounties' Files," Globe and Mail, metro ed., 26 August 1981, pp. 1, 2 Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile, The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010), pp. 337–48 G.B. Johnston, "RCMP File Destruction Still in Doubt: News," GO Info, 9, no. 1 (May 1982): 1 "Confirming Suspicions" (editorial), Body Politic, no. 77 (1981), p. 8 Joe Clark, "Cold War Witch-hunts Come to Light in Canada: Government Documents Expose a Wide-ranging Purge with Bizarre Twists," Advocate, no. 604 (1992), pp. 44–45 Dean Beeby, "Mounties Staged Massive Hunt for Gay Males in Civil Service: Police Kept Files on 8,200 during Diefenbaker-Pearson Era," Globe and Mail, metro ed., 24 April 1992, pp. A1–A2 "800,000 RCMP Files to Be 'Closed,'" Vancouver Province, 27 August 1981, p. A7

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Robert Kaplan

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