The Avro Arrow is a topic that has fascinated Canadians since its controversial cancellation in 1959. However, in the last ten years the narrative has changed dramatically from an American plot to ruin our aerospace industry to a decision made by the Canadian government based on very real calculations about the security threat to North America and the changing defence landscape of the late 1950s. In this episode we talk with Alan Barnes who has recently uncovered some incredible research that shows how important Canadian intelligent services were to the decision to cancel the Avro Arrow project. Alan has clearly uncovered that not only was the cancellation of the Arrow a highly calculated move by the Diefenbaker government but Canada’s newly established intelligence services played a key role in helping the Canadian government predict the future of defence issues which in turn spelled the end of the Arrow project.
Alan Barnes was an analyst and a manager of analysts in the Canadian intelligence community for over 25 years. He served as a military intelligence officer, and as the Middle East analyst in the Political Intelligence Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Mr. Barnes moved to the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat (IAS) of the Privy Council Office when that organization was formed in 1993 and was the Director of the IAS Middle East and Africa Division from 1995 until his retirement in 2011. Mr. Barnes played a key role in the IAS's efforts to improve analytical tradecraft and in the training of new analysts. Since his retirement Mr. Barnes has continued his work on issues related to intelligence assessment. He is currently researching the history of strategic intelligence in Canada since 1945 and is Project Co-Leader of the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project (CFIHP).
CFIHP is a collaborative effort to encourage the study of foreign intelligence in Canada and to facilitate access to archival records on this subject. By working together, researchers have a better chance of overcoming the many challenges associated with working in this field.
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S9E18 - Race and Racing: The Jerome Family
S9E17 - Lost in the Crowd: Acadians and the First World War
S9E16 - Sex in Canada: Getting Down in the Great White North
S9E15 - Alcohol in early North America
S9E14 Hockey: The Game as We Know it Today
S9E13 - Of Fugitives and Orators: The Characters Behind the RCMP’s Complicated History - a special Canadian Time Machine episode
S9E12 - The Canadian Masters of the Air
S9E11 - Canada, Maritime Power, and Africa
S9E10 The Beginning of the End: The 1758 Siege of Louisbourg
Holiday Reboot - The Upper Canadian Militia during the War of 1812
Holiday Reboot - S2E1 The Strangest Tale of WW2: The Battle for Castle Itter
S9E8 Confederates in Canada and the Canadian Connection to Lincoln's Assassination
S9E7 Big Men Fear Me - The Life and Times of George McCullagh
S9E6 The SS in Canada Part Two
S9E5 - The Partition of Palestine
S9E4 The SS in Canada Part One
S9E3 The Bombing of Air India Flight 182
S9E2 United the Salish! The Battle of Maple Bay
S9E1 Henri Le Caron - The Victorian Super Spy
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