Newly declassified RCMP records reveal the force spent years monitoring anti-apartheid organizations across Canada during the 1970s, placing informants and undercover officers inside activist groups it believed were influenced by Marxist ideology.Blacklock's Reporter says the documents show the RCMP's former Secret Security Service closely watched the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of African Colonies, an organization that supported Nelson Mandela's African National Congress, while compiling reports on university professors, students and political activists.In one 1974 intelligence report, the RCMP described the organization as being made up primarily of white, university-educated activists associated with the "new left.""It is composed mainly of white, university-educated individuals, many of whom are of 'new left' persuasion who are using support for the liberation movements as a substitute for radical political action in Canada," the report stated.Police assigned undercover officers and confidential informants to attend weekly meetings, identify participants and report on discussions taking place within the organization.Another surveillance report characterized seminars organized by the committee as promoting Marxist ideas."While not all participants may have been Marxists, it is clear the central theme of the seminar was oriented toward the Marxist perspective," investigators wrote.A subsequent 1975 report concluded that although relatively few activists occupied leadership positions, they formed interconnected networks across multiple organizations."The individuals of interest seem to subscribe to a vague form of socialism with some of these individuals being committed Marxists," the RCMP wrote.The files also asserted many activists rejected Canada's capitalist system and instead identified with liberation movements in developing countries."They tend to view our contemporary society with disdain because it is 'capitalist.' Consequently they have transferred their loyalty and idealism to the liberation movements in the Third World," one report said..Investigators paid particular attention to universities, identifying the University of Toronto and York University as centres of anti-apartheid organizing.One of the individuals singled out was York University political scientist John Saul, whom the RCMP described as a "hard core member" and vice-chair of the Committee for the Liberation of African Colonies.According to an informant's report, Saul criticized capitalism and frequently spoke about what he called bourgeois writers, journalists and bureaucrats in Canada.The RCMP also noted Saul's appearances as a commentator on CBC programming, the Morty Shulman television show and CFRB radio. Saul died in 2023 at the age of 85.Despite its extensive surveillance, the RCMP acknowledged it found no direct organizational ties between anti-apartheid groups and the Communist Party of Canada, although it noted that some individuals associated with the African National Congress had also come to police attention through Communist Party investigations.The records further noted that the Committee for the Liberation of African Colonies received grants from Oxfam and the United Church.The RCMP's Secret Security Service was dismantled in 1984 and replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).Other declassified records have shown the unit also monitored sexual minority activists, Saskatchewan New Democrat organizers, a former president of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and members of Winnipeg's Fair Play for Cuba committee, including future Manitoba premier Howard Pawley.Reflecting on the surveillance in a 2014 interview, Pawley questioned why authorities devoted resources to monitoring political activists."We weren't plotting anything," Pawley said. "Surveillance was a useless expenditure. What was the purpose of it?"He suggested the monitoring reflected the political climate of the era."They didn't like dissent, especially if the dissent came from groups they saw as pro-Russian," Pawley said. "I think it was a product of the Cold War."
