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Quebec's Padlock Law
Quebes Governmet (Premeir Maurice Duplessis) introduced an act to protect the province against communist propaganda (padlock act) in 1937. This was one of the most repressive laws in Canadian history, sometimes used to persecute subversives. -
Spies in Canada: Gouzenko Affair
Igor Gouzenko defected from the Soviet embassy in Ottawa in September 1945 with documents revealing the existence of an espionage ring in Canada. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade is one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. After World War II the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. -
International Alliances: NATO
It is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. -
"The Forgotten War" - The Korean War
The Korean War was a war between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean Peninsula was ruled by the Empire of Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of the Empire of Japan in Sept -
Continental Alliances: NORAD and DEW Line
The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line began on 15 February 1954. The DEW Line was designed and built during the Cold War as the primary air defence warning line in case of an over-the-pole invasion of the North America. Attack, over the North Pole by enemy nuclear bombers and missiles was considered a real threat to the security of the United States. The DEW Line consisted of radar stations with “over lapping” radar coverage and the ability to detect aircraft and missiles. -
Vietnam War and Draft Dogers in Canada
Canada did not fight in the Vietnam War and diplomatically it was "officially non-belligerent". American draft dodgers and military deserters who sought refuge in Canada during the Vietnam War would ignite controversy among those seeking to immigrate to Canada, some of it provoked by the Canadian government’s initial refusal to admit those who could not prove that they had been discharged from military service. -
UN Peacekeeping: The Suez Crisis and Pearson Wins Nobel Prize
The Suez Crisis, was a diplomatic and military confrontation in late 1956 between Egypt on one side, and Britain, France and Israel on the other, with the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations playing major roles in forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw. Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. -
Sputnik and Canada's Space Program
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis, began the Space Age and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. -
Avro Arrow and Its Cancellation
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. It was soon put to an abrupt end. -
Diefenbaker, Bomarc Missiles and Nuclear Warheads in Canada
In 1958, the Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker, acting in accordance with a clause in the North American Air Defence Agreement (NORAD) of 1957, deployed 56 American-made Bomarc missiles in Ontario and Quebec. Initially, the government did not divulge to the Canadian public that the missiles were to be fitted with nuclear weapons. This fact became known in 1960, however, causing a controversy over whether nuclear weapons were to be deployed on Canadian soil. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side, and the United States on the other, in October 1962. It is one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict. -
Canadian-Soviet Hockey Series
The Summit Series, or Super Series, known at the time simply as the Canada–USSR Series, was an eight-game series of ice hockey between the Soviet Union and Canada, held in September 1972. It was the first competition between the Soviet national team and a Canadian team represented by professional players of the National Hockey League (NHL), known as Team Canada. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
As Communism began to falter in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989, new exodus points were opened to East Germans who wanted to flee to the West. Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin." -
The Fall of the Soviet Union
In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II.
