By Canadian Eye Spy Associate Editor, Lynn Philip Hodgson

Two years after the SOE had moved out of the top secret Camp-X in Canada, and while still in the hands of the British Security Coordination (BSC), Camp-X was thrown into the middle of an international political intrigue.  One afternoon, a young Russian cipher clerk stationed at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa stood up from his desk, picked up his brief case, and left the office.  He walked a few blocks, then turned and continued through the doorway of a Canadian Federal building where he asked to speak with the person in charge.  Igor Gouzenko had had enough of spying for Russia in Canada and he requested political asylum for himself and for his family.

The Canadian Government had never had this happen before and none of the officials knew what the protocol was in these circumstances.  They took Gouzenko to a hotel and questioned him repeatedly and extensively regarding his information and his intentions.  Meanwhile, frantic phone calls were made throughout Ottawa.

Eventually, the officials found someone who seemed to know how to handle the situation.  A phone call was then placed to William Stephenson (head of the BSC) who made some additional calls of his own then arrived at the door of the hotel room where Igor Gouzenko was being detained.  The man to whom Stephenson had spoken also made his appearance shortly thereafter.

Later that same evening, Gouzenko and his family were taken from Ottawa and transported to the secret and secure Camp-X where they would remain throughout the Royal Commission Inquiry that was mandated to investigate the allegations regarding his activities.

Igor Gouzenko had in his possession a briefcase containing confidential documents outlining the depth of the Russian spy network active in Canada and the United States at that time.  During the entire time that Igor Gouzenko was under protection of the Canadian Government at Camp-X, it is amazing that the Russian intelligence service, to the best of our knowledge and in spite of its level of skill and capability, had absolutely no knowledge of his whereabouts.

Even had the Russians been able to ascertain that Gouzenko was in detention at Camp-X, in point of fact he was not in the Camp at all.  Many people who served there for the duration of the war stated that they had never seen him.  That is true; they did not, and with good reason.  By 1945 the old Sinclair house was in rough shape.  The agents’ training had taken a toll on it and it was no longer fit for occupation.  Stephenson acquired another farmhouse, in excellent condition and only a very short distance from the Camp, and this became the Gouzenko residence.
 
 

This “new” old farmhouse, known as the Bravener House, was at the corner of Thornton Road, on the west side, and directly across from the guardhouse.  It was ideally situated at the entrance to the Camp.  Here either the Camp personnel or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) could easily protect it, yet it was far enough away that it would not arouse suspicion.  Those working inside Camp-X virtually never saw the Gouzenko family.
 
 

In 1966, almost twenty years to the day after the closure of Camp-X by the BSC, Walter McDayter, a staff reporter of the Toronto Telegram, ran into a Yugoslav who had been trained at Camp-X and had completed his mission in Yugoslavia.  The agent informed McDayter about Camp-X, which was, of course, still top secret at that time.  McDayter decided to investigate on his own and located Camp-X.

As he neared what he had been told  was once the Camp, he noted the country farm land, the old pitted dirt road leading to the Camp, and the numerous Department of National Defence signs that warned trespassers against approaching.  An eight-foot high barbed wire fence that surrounded the perimeter of the Camp, the same type of fencing that you would see surrounding a penitentiary today, had replaced the original cow fence.

As he pulled his vehicle up to the front gate, he noticed a guard with a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck.  He also noticed that the guard was armed!  Walter McDayter was warned to stay away, to get back in his car and leave.  But he had questions he wanted to ask.

Almost ten years later, I learned about  McDayter’s trip to the Camp.  I contacted him by phone and identified myself.  I told him that I, too, was investigating Camp-X.  His immediate reaction was, “Oh, that place!  Those guys were crazy!  They wanted to shoot me!”

He had been told numerous times that were he to persist in taking pictures, he would be arrested.  He continued in spite of the warning, so the armed guard came out and escorted him inside to a small room in one of the buildings where officers interrogated him.  He was told, “This is a top secret military installation, no pictures are allowed to be taken, and no one is allowed in,” and was sent on his way and ordered not to come back.

An interesting point in McDayter's  article relating the events of that day is that the Yugoslav agent he had first encountered had told him that Igor Gouzenko had been under protection at Camp-X shortly after the war had ended and that he was still alive and was being protected under a new name.  It was big news at that time that Russian spies had been working in Canada.  In retrospect, it now seems perfectly logical that they would have been, but at the time, most Canadians were unaware that Russian spies were walking amongst them.

The article talked about Gouzenko being kept at the Camp, and ended with the promise, “Tomorrow; Camp-X and Igor Gouzenko.”  McDayter later told me that tomorrow never came for that next article.  He had been called into the General Manager’s office at the Telegram and was informed that the second part of that article “would not run”.  When he asked why not, he was told it was a matter of military secrecy.  Of course, the second part of the article never appeared!
 
 

Not long after this, the RCMP contacted me also.  They had ‘issues’ with what I was 'up to' and with what I had learned about Igor Gouzenko.  They arranged a meeting with me and I was informed at that time that I was in possession of material that was still covered by the ‘Official Secrets Act’ and, were I to publish it in any format, I would be in violation of the ‘Act’.

They asked me to bring everything I had relative to Gouzenko to the meeting.  I did.  One of the things that they were most interested in was a picture I had of what I thought was Igor Gouzenko standing in front of the Bravener house with an RCMP agent standing beside him. At least this is what I had been told by the reliable source who gave me the photograph. The resemblance between this man and Gouzenko was uncanny.

The RCMP told me that I could not publish this picture: if I did, Gouzenko would surely be a dead man.  They went on to say that they had spent a lot of money putting him and his family into protection plans that, to date, were working well.  They were not about to allow me to 'blow it.'

For those who are not aware of the ‘Official Secrets Act’, it read as follows:

(a) THE CRIMINAL CODE applies to service personnel and civilians alike and provides severe penalties for sedition, treason, espionage, and other offences related to security.
(b) THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT makes it a criminal offence punishable by Fourteen Years Imprisonment for any person to communicate information to any unauthorized person for any purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state.
(c) THE NATIONAL DEFENCE ACT makes it an offence punishable by Death for any person subject to the code of Service Discipline to commit a breach of security in connection with military operations or to act as a spy for the enemy.

By order of the Deputy Minister.

After I published the first edition of ‘Inside Camp-X’, in which the above photograph appeared, a person who swore that the picture was of him and his brother contacted me. His family lived in the Bravener house immediately after the Gouzenko family was moved to a safe house in Toronto.  I told him that I couldn’t believe it because of the reliability of my source.  However, in the end, he proved to me that it was indeed he and not Gouzenko.  The picture was published in the first edition of ‘Inside Camp-X’ but did not appear in subsequent editions and only after Gouzenko’s death.

So now I wonder why this picture was planted on me?  Why didn’t the RCMP tell me at the time of our interview, twenty-five years ago, that it wasn’t Gouzenko?  Why did they threaten me if I published it?  Had Gouzenko’s facial characteristics been changed or did the RCMP want the Russians to believe that his appearance was different?  And can it be that the hope was that the picture would fall into the hands of the Russians, which would ultimately send them on a wild goose chase?

I guess we’ll never know.

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This is a rare example of a painting executed and signed by the late Igor
    Gouzenko, the Soviet clerk who, in 1945, defected in Ottawa and
    tipped-off  Canadians to the existence of a Soviet spy ring.

    The painting is titled "Forbidden Beach" and dated 1946.