Coming into the Second World War, there was growing concern of enemy threat. Canada quickly followed the monarchy, Great Britain’s choice, on declaring war on Germany in 1939. Meanwhile, Canada did not have an independent source of information for reports on the situation, and it was not ideal for Canadians at this time to have second hand knowledge that came from Britain’s diplomatic reports.[1] They relied heavily on Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. Canada had a need for their own communications branch for signal intelligence, and the National Research Council (NRC) had recognized that.
In 1941, the National Research Council consulted the Department of National Defence (DND) in regards to having authorization to create a cryptographic branch for encrypting and decrypting military messages for the war.[2] The Department of National Defence refused this proposal, however the National Research Council had already started the process of forming one.[3] Though the Canadian government had believed it was not the right time for having their own intelligence service, the NRC had made progress on recruiting personnel to their team. C.J. Mackenzie, the acting president of the NRC, sought out academic staff in mathematics at universities.[4] Thereafter, it officially came into existence on June 09, 1941, in a small laboratory on Montreal Road. [6] Until the Spring of 1942, the unit expanded, requiring the Examination Unit to host in a larger building. The unit relocated to 345 Laurier Avenue East in Sandy Hill, Ottawa where most of its work focused on Pacific traffic, particularly Japanese diplomatic transmission.[5]