I received Jim Higgins’s RCMP file in Spring 2019 under a Freedom of Information request. Not only did the Royal Canadian Mounted Police file document many of his activities during the Great Depression, and after, it also held an intriguing glimpse into his romantic life, a couple of years before he met his wife, Reta Palliser.
The file was opened in 1935 when he was kicked out of the Dundurn Relief Camp, near Saskatoon, for “agitating.” He has written about this episode and acknowledges, in his understated way, that things may have gotten a little out of hand. Understandably so, since by then the confined men had suffered years of hunger, deprivation, unemployment, and endless searching for non-existent jobs, and were now in in isolated internment camps.
Here is an example of how Higgins’s file helped clarify his memoir. On his return to Saskatoon from the Spanish Civil War in 1939, he became involved in the United Reform Movement—a local coalition of left wing political parties, supported by the Saskatoon Labour Council, which included the precursor of the New Democratic Party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (he had been a member of the CCF since its inception in 1932) and the Communist Party of Canada — which ran a candidate, named W. G. Brown, in a federal by-election campaign later that year. The candidate, a Presbyterian minister, won, but controversy swirled about the influence of “Reds” and “commies.”
Higgins wrote about the by-election campaign, referring to his leadership role, but anyone reading it the way he’d worded it would have been confused, and perhaps even dubious. Bingo! In his RCMP file, there was proof — in fact, he was on the executive of the campaign committee. I clarified the narrative, and added an end note, one of several which came from his file.
Shortly after the by-election, the file indicates that the Saskatoon RCMP were left scratching their heads about where Higgins had disappeared to. Readers of his memoir will know exactly what he was up to because he writes about how he escaped RCMP attention for almost a year ending up in New York where he met the artist he talks about in his preface.
When Higgins returned from New York, it didn’t take long for the RCMP to find him in Toronto — I suspect through a tip from a “friendly” border agent — and from then on his life is documented in their file: where he worked, when he moved to Peterborough, when he was engaged, to whom, where he honeymooned, what his workmates had to say about his politics and union activities and, later, even the full names of his five children. No wonder he clammed up around us!
As for his politics, I observed him excited to be working on Walter Pitman’s New Party campaign in 1960. The New Party was renamed the New Democrat Party (NDP) in 1961, effectively replacing the CCF, and he became a lifelong member of the NDP.
Realizing they had little to pin on him, the RCMP downsized his file in the early 1970s. After that, it was mostly dormant, but not quite—the last item was a Montreal Gazette newspaper article from 1980 about his reunion with Manuel Alvarez, so his file ends with the somewhat ironic record of him having been a hero.
There is some information in the RCMP file that I’m not using, for example, details about his girlfriend in New York. He had once mentioned her briefly to me; I knew only that she was Jewish and that her name was “Lily,” at least that’s how I thought it was spelled. Apparently not. In my father’s effects was a book inscribed on the flyleaf by “Lillyan.”
Confirmation of Lilly’s existence also came from my sister, Susan. As she read Dad’s RCMP file, it triggered a long-lost memory. As a youngster, she had come across something that shocked her when she was rooting through boxes in the attic— a gauzy portrait of a young woman with thin, over-plucked eyebrows and blonde, softly-waved hair. It was signed, “For Jim, Love Lilly.” Susan thought it was a terrible secret that she wasn’t meant to be privy to, and hastily put it back. It was never seen again. I’m sure there were other treasures in that box that also disappeared.
The reason there is a lot about Lilly in the RCMP file is because they intercepted a couple of her very long letters to him in Saskatoon when he returned from Spain, but before he met up with her in New York, My lips are sealed on that one. Some mysteries are meant to be.
Others will be revealed in the book.
© Janette Higgins
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Now Published
Fighting for Democracy: The True Story of Jim Higgins (1907-1982), A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War can be ordered here.
Fighting for Democracy by Jim Higgins is the latest book about the Mac-Paps, Canadians in the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, which was part of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. Other books about Canadians in the Spanish Civil War include Not For King or Country by Tyler Wentzell , Mac-Pap by Ronald Liversedge with David Yorke and Renegades by Michael Petrou.
Very cool. Amazing that the RCMP and FBI were so interested in the sexual peccadillos of people they were watching but undoubtedly it was their version of “Kompromat” or bits of information that could be used to blackmail people. J. E. Hoover was titillated by the sexual life of people he wanted to get dope on which is why he had such a large file on Marilyn Monroe. He could use that against the Kennedys.
It is surprising to me that they would leave names of living people unredacted in the RCMP files. FBI blacks out names of informants and living persons. Putting those files back together is a crossword puzzle.
Looking forward to reading your book.
Hi Ray,
Most names were redacted, certainly of any informers. It took them six months to prepare the file so I could see it. It was interesting to me that a certain RCMP officer in the Cobourg detachment (somewhat less than an hour away) wanted to be the only one who covered him. It seems that the officer interviewed his work buddies and perhaps even our neighbours. Now, I wonder who I knew who knew he was under surveillance, if anyone.
Lilly’s name was not redacted, probably not only because she wasn’t an informer, but because she was an American. I was actually surprised her letters weren’t removed from the file when it was purged. No passion of the sexual sort, just political!
By the way someone at the detachment transcribed the letters and I gather put the originals back in the envelope before sending them on their way. Both letters were dated February 1940 and he would have realized they’d been tampered with. It no doubt figured into his decision to leave the country shortly after. BTW, I didn’t mention it in the blog post, but after he disappeared, the RCMP executed a search warrant at his last known address in Saskatoon.
I,m very interested in your book. Britains,canadians,etc in the Ebro,s battle,especially in Corbera like my catalan father. One day I would like too write a book about all this people that travelled around the world to help us. Thanks again for writing about your interessting and good father
Thanks, Josep. There are some incredible stories that need to be told, especially those of the Loyalist Spaniards like your father.
Hi Janette. Interesting info about your dad. As he was returning to Canada in 1939, my mother had been at Ottawa Civic studying to become a nurse while visiting her Uncle Sigmund Wang in Hawkesbury. In 1939, with the impending WWII, she had to return to Nirway as your dad was returning here.
Great work, Janette.
Trudy
Thanks, Trudy. I had not remembered that your mother was studying in Canada in the 1930s. Her time in German-occupied Norway must have held many a story. I hope it is recorded somehow in letters or narrative. I know you’ve done a lot of work on your family tree/history.