Anti-Homosexual Campaigns in Cold War Canada

Abstract

The Cold War was a time of civil right abuses and national insecurities in Canada. During the hunt for Communist internal subversive threats, hundreds of men and women working in civil service positions lost their jobs in the Anti-Homosexual Campaigns. During the 1950s and 1960s the Security Panel led by members of the RCMP "secretly" undertook the surveillance of suspected, alleged and admitted homosexuals in vulnerable sectors of the government. Homosexuality was criminalized and later medicalized by the RCMP  which made homosexuals targets of Soviet blackmail threats due to the secret nature of their lifestyle. Cultural and national insecurities resulted in the push to strengthen and valorize prewar societal norms, such as heterosexuality and masculinity. The RCMP claimed moral justification for its actions. Homosexual civil servants were demoted or fired without a given reason due to denial of security clearance. The RCMP argued that homosexuals were people with "character weaknesses" unsuitable for jobs that gave them access to sensitive national information. Even today, archival research on the Anti-Homosexual Campaigns is censored through the Federal Government's use of the Access to Information Act.

Discipline: History

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carolee Pollock