More RCMP Documents on Tommy Douglas Could Be Released

A federal court judge doesn't buy the government line that releasing some 700 pages more on Douglas would be a threat to national security.

The ne'er-do-wells at Library and Archives Canada have been ordered to review their decision to withhold about two-thirds of the documents that the RCMP compiled on Tommy Douglas, the father of healthcare and grandfather of Jack Bauer. Previously, the agency released about 400 pages on the former NDP leader, Saskatchewan premier, and democratically selected Greatest Canadian, in response to an access-to-information request. Those documents revealed that the Mounties had been spying on Douglas for some 30 years, and now a federal judge has ruled that Library and Archives will have to reconsider if the more than 700 pages withheld from the public ought to see the light of day. The government has maintained that releasing any more documents would be a threat to national defence, so we're going to go ahead and hazard a guess that the documents have been withheld because... Douglas secretly started a nuclear weapons program in Saskatchewan back in the 1950s. What, you didn't think those were all grain silos dotting the Prairies, did you?