ABSTRACT
During the Second World War, the British Secret Intelligence Service recruited approximately thirty Yugoslav Canadians into the Special Operations Executive to infiltrate the Balkans and liaise with resistance groups there. Among these men were veterans of the Spanish Civil War. Most others came from the same circles of radical immigrants who fought in Spain and supported the cause of the Spanish Republic. They lived marginalized lives in Canada, subject to police harassment and at risk of deportation. Yet their recruitment into an organization run by the British ruling class took place with the enthusiastic cooperation of the Communist Party of Canada. The party, and the recruits themselves, recognized that they shared with the British and Canadian governments a desire to fight fascism in Yugoslavia and that, despite their divergent political ideologies, this common goal justified close and focused collaboration.1
