S8E2 The Frontier Constabulary - Canada’s First Secret Police

From 1864 until 1871 a relatively secret organisation of Canadian police patrolled Canada’s border with the United States. What began as a mission to prevent increasing tension between Britian and the US evolved into a concerted effort to undermine a major threat to Canadian sovereignty. This threat came from the Irish Republican organization known as the Fenians. Through a complex array of informants and spies on both sides of the border the Canadian secret police (known as the Frontier Constabulary) played a central role in defining Canada’s response to the Fenian threat and became the country’s first ever secret police organisation.

Book recommendation: Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police by David A. Wilson published by McGill-Queens Press in 2022.

Get add free content at Patreon!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.