Intelligence Branch: Briefcase Camera and Police Squad

intelligence branch: The squad, which included members of the provincial and Toronto police forces, kept tabs on the travel of prominent criminals, watching flights daily from 6 a.m. into the wee hours of the next morning, according to CTV. They operate a briefcase camera and have become adept in collecting very good photographs, the RCMP memo said. The idea of snapping surreptitious images developed in late November 1964 when a member of the RCMP's security and intelligence branch drafted a memo touting the possible help of a special police squad working at the bustling Toronto International Airport. At the time, two decades before the birth of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP was responsible for monitoring suspected subversives and foreign spies. The Canadian Press obtained details of the RCMP's Photographic Sighting Program from Library and Archives Canada through the Access to Information Act. In light of frequent air travel by leading Communist Party of Canada members, East Bloc embassy personnel and others of interest to the Mounties, the future co-operation of the airport squad might prove rewarding, and its members had already indicated a willingness to assist, the memo said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.