OTTAWA — As a Communist Party member in Calgary in the early 1940s, Frank Hadesbeck performed clerical work at the party office, printed leaflets and sold books.
But he also had tasks his party comrades could know nothing about: snooping on mail, copying phone numbers from scratch pads and rummaging through waste baskets.
He was among the Canadians who volunteered to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War against Gen. Francisco Franco. The files contain the names of hundreds of people on so-called Watch Out lists — individuals of interest to RCMP security officials who grew increasingly concerned about the perceived menace of Communism during the Cold War.
The RCMP's cash payments supplemented the salary from his steady job, from the early 1950s on, at a Regina company that salvaged old tractors. "The force continued to believe that Douglas was secretly a Communist, or at least was unduly influenced by them."
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