By Canadian Press

Secret spy file on Pierre Trudeau was almost spared from destruction: memo

Jul 24, 2019 | 2:08 AM

OTTAWA — A secret spy-service file on Pierre Trudeau came close to eluding destruction 30 years ago, newly disclosed memos reveal.

However, a late October 1988 recommendation that the dossier on the former prime minister should be preserved for at least another decade was nixed just days later, sealing its fate.

The Canadian Press reported last month that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service scrapped the Cold War file on Trudeau in 1989 instead of sending it to the national archives.

The Trudeau dossier was among hundreds of thousands of files on a wide array of groups and individuals the then-new CSIS inherited in the 1980s after the RCMP Security Service was disbanded following a series of scandals.

CSIS said the file on Trudeau was destroyed because it fell short of the threshold for retention by either the service or the archives.

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The news rankled leading historians, who said an intelligence file on a prime minister should be kept without hesitation given its significance to the national public record.

The Canadian Press