William Leonard Higgitt
William Leonard Higgitt | |
|---|---|
 Higgitt and Queen Elizabeth II at the RCMP Centennial Celebrations, Regina, 1973 | |
| President of INTERPOL | |
| In office 1972–1976 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Dickopf |
| Succeeded by | Carl Persson |
| Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police | |
| In office October 1, 1969 – December 28, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Malcolm Lindsay |
| Succeeded by | Maurice Nadon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 10, 1917 Anerley, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Died | April 2, 1989 (aged 71) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
William Leonard Higgitt (10 November 1917 – 2 April 1989) was the 15th Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from 1969 to 1973 and President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) from 1972 to 1976.[1] His background in intelligence and counterintelligence, during World War II and afterward, made him the preferred choice as RCMP Commissioner during the height of the Cold War. Higgitt also directed national security operations during the October Crisis of 1970, when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross; events which saw Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoke the War Measures Act for the first time in Canadian history during peacetime. As Commissioner, Higgitt also presided over the RCMP centenary.
Early life
Higgitt was born in Anerley, Saskatchewan on November 10, 1917, and grew up in Anerley during the Depression years of the 1930s. His father Percy Higgitt gave up his nearby homestead when Leonard was four to be an Imperial Oil agent and grain buyer for the Canadian Consolidated Grain Company; later taking over the local store and post office in Anerley, which he operated for over forty years. Leonard Higgitt's father also provided municipal public service in various capacities.[2] After primary schooling, Leonard Higgitt went to high school in Saskatoon.
Career
After graduating from high school in 1937, at the age of nineteen, and two years before the breakout of World War II, Higgitt joined the RCMP at Regina, Saskatchewan. Here he completed recruit training and became a stenographer at "F" Division headquarters. He remained in Regina until the outbreak of the War, whereupon he was posted to Ottawa, Ontario for special war duties and to serve in the Intelligence Branch. Higgitt became Government advisor to the Commons Judicial Committee on Internment Operations, a committee set up to identify and mitigate potential security risks to Canada and the Allied effort against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Prior to the pivotal Normandy Landings, these operations led to the removal of several hundreds of Canadians of German and Japanese descent to detention camps in Canada's hinterlands until the surrender of the Axis powers. In 1945, Higgitt was a principal investigator of Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada who defected on September 5, three days after the official close of the War, with 109 documents on Soviet espionage activities in Canada and the United States.
In 1952, Higgitt was commissioned as an officer and became Inspector and Personnel Officer in Ontario. He moved to western Quebec two years later to serve as Inspector at "C" Division, then was transferred to Montreal to take charge of the RCMP's Montreal Subdivision and supervise the RCMP's investigation and enforcement of the Canada Customs Act. He was posted to the RCMP Security Service in Ottawa in 1957, specializing in counterintelligence with what is now the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). With the Security Service, Higgitt was involved in the investigations of Soviet KGB agents Nikolai Ostrovsky and Rem Krasilnikov, and the double-agent Yevgeni Brik. Three years later he was assigned to London, England, where he served as Liaison Officer with British Intelligence and, later, with Western Europe via the Canadian Delegation to the General Assemblies of INTERPOL. He remained at this post for three years, travelling extensively and working closely with a number of police organizations and intelligence agencies throughout Europe. He returned to Ottawa in 1963, taking the position of Superintendent in the RCMP Security Service. In 1967, Higgitt became RCMP Assistant Commissioner and Director of Security and Intelligence. In this capacity he worked closely with counterparts in the United States and Europe to monitor communist movements. Two years later, he was promoted to Deputy RCMP Commissioner and became Director of Operations for all Criminal and Security Service matters throughout Canada.
On October 1, 1969, at the height of the Cold War, he was appointed RCMP Commissioner by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau over several of his senior officers. This was the RCMP's fifteenth commissioner. Upon his appointment, The New York Times described Higgitt as being "in the tradition of quiet‐spoken, approachable but tough head men who hardly ever, by word or deed, draw attention to themselves".[3] Higgitt continued his duties as Commissioner on a one-year extension granted by Canada's Solicitor-General. Following his appointment as Commissioner, Higgitt was unanimously elected a Vice-President of INTERPOL.[4] Higgitt received a tipstaff at the 65th annual conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, London, Ontario.
RCMP Commissioner
One of the first questions posed to Higgitt upon his appointment as RCMP Commissioner was whether he thought a Chinese Communist Embassy in Ottawa would pose a new security problem for the federal police. Higgitt's immediate answer, widely circulated throughout Canadian media, was that a Chinese Communist presence in Canada would indeed require heightened police vigilance; an answer which displeased Trudeau, who had pressed hard for Canada-China negotiations. In May 1971, after Canada and China's Maoist Government had agreed to exchange ambassadors, Higgitt was asked, while testifying before the Commons Judicial Committee, if he maintained his 1969 position on China. To this Higgitt repeated that in 1969 "The obvious answer had to be yes".[5]
During his term in office, the RCMP Guidon was presented to the Force by Queen Elizabeth II, the first videofile system for storing and retrieving fingerprints was obtained, the Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) with nationwide computer services was opened, and the creation of the Canadian Bomb Data Center was authorized. Higgitt directed RCMP operations during the FLQ Crisis in Quebec in 1970 and was responsible for organizing the RCMP Centennial Celebrations in 1973.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Order of St. John). He was also awarded the Canadian Centennial Medal, the RCMP Long Service Medal.
President of Interpol
In 1972, at Interpol's 41st Plenary Meeting in Frankfurt, Higgitt was elected President of Interpol. This marked the first time a president from outside Europe was elected. Higgitt set the growing global narcotics trade as Interpol's top priority.
Retirement
Commissioner Higgitt retired from the RCMP on December 28, 1973; going on to serve for several years as president of Canada's Safety Council. He was called before the Commission of Inquiry Concerning Certain Activities of the RCMP in 1980, testifying that he, in his capacity as RCMP Commissioner, along with Director General of the RCMP's Security Service, John Starnes, had discussed with Cabinet Ministers and other senior Canadian Government officials the possibility of surveilling foreign agents via electronic eavesdropping, and of similar intelligence-gathering methods in the wake of the bombings during the FLQ crisis. Higgitt maintained that his "political masters" in Ottawa had given their implied consent to the use of wiretapping and other forms of electronic surveillance.[6][7]
Higgitt died in Ottawa on April 2, 1989 and was buried in the RCMP cemetery in Regina, Saskatchewan.
References
- ^ "Former Presidents of INTERPOL".
- ^ Marine Links Inkster's Spoliation Livery Companies Marine Links Inkster’s Spoliation Livery Companies
- ^ "Mounties Attacked Over Surveillance". The New York Times. 17 May 1971.
- ^ Structure and governance
- ^ "Chief of the Mounties William Leonard Higgitt". The New York Times. 17 May 1971.
- ^ "Chief of the Mounties William Leonard Higgitt". The New York Times. 17 May 1971.
- ^ "Certain R.C.M.P. Activities and the Question of Governmental Knowledge" (PDF). US Department of Justice. August 1981.