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Decades-old CIA documents reveal what U.S. thinks of Canada

The U.S. and Canadian flags fly side by side. Photo from Getty Images.
The U.S. and Canadian flags fly side by side. Photo from Getty Images.

If you want to get a sense of what kind of impression Canada has made on the U.S. over the years, newly released declassified documents give some eyebrow-raising insights.

Nearly a million records from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, starting from the Second World War until the 1990, are now available online. The National Post searched through the 2,000 documents to uncover all references to Canada. Here’s a condensed roundup of the some of the juicier bits:

  • A letter from 1982 written by the Canadian consulate in Philadelphia to the CIA tries to convince them to attend their electronics trade show by playing up the fact that the exchange rate is favourable and there’s “ample free parking available.”

  • A report on “Free World attitudes” about the U.S. launching spy satellites into space in the early 1960s uncovered that people aren’t clever enough to care. The report found that countries like Canada had “meager and mostly routine press coverage” and that any opposition would be minor.

  • A 1963 briefing mentions “Ottawa’s concern with the ‘domination’ question has reached the point of obsession” before advocating “vigorous countermeasures” to quell Canada’s fears.

  • Analysts in the early 1960s concluded that the Soviet’s extensive fleet of military bomber aircrafts could do some serious damage to Canada – while the U.S. would mostly be fine.

  • Before DVRs and streaming television, there were VCRs. The videotape recorders were considered a threat to national security at one point, which is why the CIA kept track of who owned them. In the late 50s and early 60s, Canada had 10 of the devices, which at the time, were big enough to fill a room.

  • In the 1990s, a report warned of a French-speaking terrorist who was possibly planning to enter the State from Canada with the intention of crashing a “Lear Jet type” aircrafts filled with explosives into the U.S. capital. The plot never materialized, but the advisory bares some eerie parallels to the catastrophic events of 9/11.

  • The CIA noted that when India discharged its first atomic bomb in 1974, it contained material made using a Canadian research reactor. A year later, a report stated the Canadian government was concerned about selling nuclear reactors to South Korea, in case it happened again.

  • U.S. intelligence was compelled by a study from Laurentian University that examined how electrical storms influence the powers of clairvoyants to communicate telepathically using their dreams.

  • Canada’s food exports foiled several plans by the CIA to starve the enemy. A secret plan to flood North Vietnam’s rice paddies was thwarted since China could have fed the country by importing Canada’s grain. Jimmy Carter’s 1979 grain embargo against the U.S.S.R for their invasion of Afghanistan was hampered because the Soviets were importing a significant amount of Canadian wheat.

  • In 1975, the CIA noted that “only Iceland and Luxembourg spend less per capita on their NATO commitments” than Canada. It also whined about how the country was paring back on its peacekeeping commitments in Cyprus due to high costs.

  • One name that regularly appear throughout the documents is that of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1972 the CIA observed that “Trudeaumania … has not been apparent this year,” while another report questions why a man in his late 40s was still being considered a “youthful but brilliant playboy.” In 1978, his “long-standing fascination” with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was reported, along with the survey that while Canadians “dislike and distrust” Trudeau, he was the “most able” leader we could appoint.