On Campus

Mounties kept file on Ignatieff during student days

Liberal leader organized conferences and teach-ins when at the U of T

The RCMP kept a file on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff when he was a student at the University of Toronto. According to a memo obtained by the Canadian Press through a freedom of information request, the Mounties monitored Ignatieff as he organized a conference on religion and international affairs in 1967. In an interview, Ignatieff was cautious not to criticize the RCMP but said there was nothing subversive about his activities. “They may have had some idea that we were all subversive radicals, but we were anything but,” the Liberal leader said. Parts of the memo, which include a news clipping from student paper the Varsity, remain redacted.

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