But in a mansion that once stood along Laurier Avenue East, Gellman and her colleagues—many of whom were women—had a top-secret mission: to crack codes and encryption used in secret and diplomatic communications during the World War II.
“No one outside knew what we were doing,” the 101-year-old told CBC Ottawa on Saturday. “You knew so much it was a secret mission. And you didn’t tell anyone. And I watched it very closely. I didn’t even tell my family.” On Saturday morning, a plaque honoring the Investigation Unit, Canada’s first cryptographic office, was unveiled at the Laurier House National Historic Site, next to where Gelman once worked. The house was also the residence of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada during World War II. Gelman said that while her loved ones knew she had a top-secret job, they had a hard time understanding the scope of her job. These duties included typing decoded Japanese messages before they were rushed to what was then called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The information was also shared with the British government’s Bletchley Park, a center of Allied code-breaking where names such as Alan Turing walked the halls. Sylvia Gellman said while her family knew she had an important job during World War II, they kept her exact nature a secret. (Joseph Tunney/CBC) Officially marking the unit’s contributions to Canada with a plaque was something of a pandemic project for Diana Pepall, who has been researching the office since 2014.
It’s no surprise that so few people know about the efforts of Gellman and her colleagues, Pepall said.
“When they left, they all got a note that said, ‘Because the war is over and you’re no longer working here, you’re not allowed to talk about it for the rest of your life,’” he said. “I have seen the actual note.” One woman Pepall discovered during her research said two years of her mother’s life were always missing – until they were filled in by the researcher’s efforts. “Mother was right there and then she gave a 20-minute talk that no one had ever heard before about her work in the Examinations Unit,” Pepall said. Researcher Diana Pepall said the Inquiry Unit helped the nation become more independent from Britain. He has been reviewing the office since 2014. (Joseph Tunney/CBC)

It helped strengthen Canada’s independence

The unit’s success also marked a major milestone in Canada’s independence within the intelligence community. Somehow, the Investigative Unit evolved into the Communications Security Establishment (CSE): the national cryptographic agency that provides the federal government with information technology security and foreign signals intelligence. Many employees bounced from one secret organization to another, said Erik Waddell, who also works for CSE. “The work they did during the war proved, not only to our allies, but to Canadian government officials and ministers and to the prime minister, that there was actually a value in Canada having its own independent intelligence-gathering capability,” he said. . “[It also proved] that this capability was worth maintaining after the war.’ The work of Gellman and others, Waddell said, also “helped create, promote and maintain” partnerships with his allies, which was critical to the establishment of Five Eyes, a key intelligence-sharing alliance on today’s world stage. For Gelman, the Interrogation Unit was more than her place of work: it was a second home where she met two lifelong friends. Having lost a brother in the war, Gelman said she understood the importance of her work and was proud to work in the encryption office. “I felt the whole thing was amazing, what was happening,” he said. “I really did.”