RCMP spied on activists in early days of universal medicare planning in Sask., documents show

Nearly 60 years ago to the day, Saskatchewan doctors went on strike in protest against what would become Canada’s universal health care system.

Now, documents obtained through an access to information request show that in the 1960s, activists in the province in favour of the idea that would become medicare were being surveilled by RCMP, amid fears they may be communist sympathizers.

The Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act came into force on July 1, 1962. Years later, it would become the template for the nation’s universal health care.

But documents obtained by Dennis Gruending, a former CBC journalist and member of Parliament who is now an Ottawa-based