On Guard for Thee, Part 2: A Blanket of Ice

Overview

The second part of a trilogy of films on Canada's national security operations and civil liberties during the past half-century. When Winston Churchill called for a grand alliance against Soviet communism, after World War II ended, it signalled the beginning of the Cold War, with universal tensions and distrust. Spies, counter-spies, and double agents dominated the world scene. Canadians reached for a security blanket and the ensuing secret witch-hunts left a trail of deception, despair and death. Civil servants were put through strict security checks, and two diplomats died while under suspicion. This climate of deception climaxed in Quebec in 1970, when the FLQ crisis revealed the confusion besetting governments and police forces in their dealings with national security and civil liberties.