Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2008. / Thesis Advisor(s): Bellavita, Christopher. "September 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 5, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-126). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 27, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Dept. of Political Science, University of Alberta. "Spring 2010." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Humanities Programme, Concordia University, 1999. / "May, 1999." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 459-479). Available also on the Internet.

Describing Canada's security intelligence practice, historians have identified 1945as a watershed. In September of that year Igor Gouzenko defected from the embassy of the Soviet Union in Ottawa, carrying with him evidence that the Soviets operated an espionage ring in this country. According to historical canon, Gouzenko's defection and the investigations which resulted from it forced the Canadian government to initiate a security screening program for civil servants and armed forces personnel. This program was an attempt to discern the political opinions, behaviour and trustworthiness of people in positions of trust both inside the state and outside. This thesis rewrites the conventional history of state security screening in Canada. By reexamining existing evidence and making use of records uncovered through the Access to Information Act, this work demonstrates that security screening of civil servants, military personnel and naturalization applicants began in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Revising the point at which security screening began also forces a reevaluation of the motivation for security screening. Security screening was not launched to detect and neutralize foreign espionage agents. Rather, it was borne out of a deep fear of communists among the Canadian people. Concern about internal dissent, not about foreign spying, was responsible for this new security intelligence development. This work also reexamines the Canadian government's supervision of its primary security intelligence agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Contrary to the widely held view that the Canadian cabinet initiated and supervised the screening system, this thesis shows that the RCMP operated a program for at least fifteen years without political authorization and guidance. In doing so, it committed acts which can only be regarded as civil liberties violations. Nevertheless, abuses were relatively minor. One reason why they were was the dubious legality of the program. Carrying out a program which lacked political approval, the RCMP kept a tight rein on the security screening system, fearing a controversy which could be embarrassing and damaging to its own security intelligence capacity.

This study investigates Canada's border security policy, practices and technologies and the discourses in which they function, to better understand the U.S-Canadian "Smart Border" and the post-9/11 geographies of the nation-state. With the erasure of economic and military borders and the erection of new security-oriented police borders, Canada's "Smart Border" is no longer at the edges of territory but is a series of spaces reproduced in and outside of Canada through technologies such as the passport, immigration and anti-terrorism legislation, security agencies, monuments, and maps. The "Smart Border" perpetuates colonial distinctions and projects as a site of tension between the national construction of Canadian identities, policing technologies and the enforcement of a global apartheid that restricts access to political and economic resources by enforcing a regime of differential access to mobility. As a site of resistance, the "Smart Border" is also a space from which to displace colonial-national genealogies.

Describing Canada's security intelligence practice, historians have identified 1945as a watershed. In September of that year Igor Gouzenko defected from the embassy of the Soviet Union in Ottawa, carrying with him evidence that the Soviets operated an espionage ring in this country. According to historical canon, Gouzenko's defection and the investigations which resulted from it forced the Canadian government to initiate a security screening program for civil servants and armed forces personnel. This program was an attempt to discern the political opinions, behaviour and trustworthiness of people in positions of trust both inside the state and outside. This thesis rewrites the conventional history of state security screening in Canada. By reexamining existing evidence and making use of records uncovered through the Access to Information Act, this work demonstrates that security screening of civil servants, military personnel and naturalization applicants began in the years between the First and Second World Wars. Revising the point at which security screening began also forces a reevaluation of the motivation for security screening. Security screening was not launched to detect and neutralize foreign espionage agents. Rather, it was borne out of a deep fear of communists among the Canadian people. Concern about internal dissent, not about foreign spying, was responsible for this new security intelligence development. This work also reexamines the Canadian government's supervision of its primary security intelligence agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Contrary to the widely held view that the Canadian cabinet initiated and supervised the screening system, this thesis shows that the RCMP operated a program for at least fifteen years without political authorization and guidance. In doing so, it committed acts which can only be regarded as civil liberties violations. Nevertheless, abuses were relatively minor. One reason why they were was the dubious legality of the program. Carrying out a program which lacked political approval, the RCMP kept a tight rein on the security screening system, fearing a controversy which could be embarrassing and damaging to its own security intelligence capacity. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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