As the controversy over foreign interference in Canada’s democratic processes continues to grip Ottawa, a look back at a similar episode in Canadian history may offer some useful perspective. It has been almost 80 years since cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko left the Soviet embassy in Ottawa with a sheaf of secret documents that revealed an extensive Soviet espionage operation in Canada, while also implicating a British scientist and a highly ranked official in the U.S. State Department in spying.
