The origins of political policing in Canada: Class, law, and the burden of empire

Abstract

This article examines the origins and development of the Canadian secret service from the 1860s to World War I. During this period, the Canadian government faced political challenges from Irish republicans and South Asian radicals. Both groups sought to free their home countries - Ireland and India - from British rule by promoting both the objective of independence and the importance of militant tactics amongst their respective immigrant communities in North America. Mindful of the wider empire-wide implications of these "subversive" movements, the Canadian government created a secret service to gather political intelligence. Importantly, Canada's early experience with political policing was shaped by its status as an outpost of the British Empire: not only did the federal government rely heavily on the imperial civil service to aid in its intelligence gathering operations, but the very threat that it faced was a product of the mother country's own history of imperialism and colonialism.