Why Mounties paid 5 informers to spy on Dene leaders: Inside a secret surveillance operation – CBC

Mar 26, 2026

Dene leaders say Mounties broke into and bugged office in Cold War-era disruption program

There was something suspicious about the young, hippie-looking man who rolled up to François Paulette’s home, out of the blue, in a Datsun pickup truck.

It was Yellowknife in the 1970s, an era of transformative change, so this wasn’t unusual. But the stranger, who introduced himself as “Bob,” last name unknown, soon raised some red flags.

“He started talking kind of crazy,” said Paulette, a respected Denesuline elder from Fort Smith, N.W.T., and member of the Order of Canada, in a recent interview at Yellowknife’s Explorer Hotel.