Critical Writing Index

Hundreds lost jobs after RCMP hunt for homosexuals

by Dan Beeby

Times-Colonist, 1992, p. B11

Article explains material obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act which shows the RCMP's hunt for male homosexuals in 1959.

Robert Wake (a Carleton University psychologist) was funded to work on a device that would quickly identify homosexuals-dubbed the "fruit machine". Some of these tests included reading emotional responses to a series of pictures and a list of words, by eye-movements, sweat production and blood flow to the fingers.

This article was used as research material for Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak's film Legal Memory that explored similar subject matter.

ITEM 1992.038 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Legal MemoryLisa Steele and Kim Tomczak