The FBI Raid on Donald Sutherland's House
Plus the fights to save the Science Centre, Ontario Place & the Revue...
Donald Sutherland was standing alone in an empty field, next to an old army tank. It was the autumn of 1969, and he was in Yugoslavia filming the WWII comedy Kelly's Heroes. As he waited for the next scene to start, he saw a lone figure coming toward him. It was his co-star, Clint Eastwood, and he had news.
Sutherland later remembered that moment. "I start walking through the field toward him. And I just have the image of my tank here, the whole rest of the army there — and Clint in the middle of the field with me, telling me that my wife’s been arrested for buying hand grenades for the Black Panther Party… with a personal cheque!"
And with that, Clint Eastwood keeled over with laughter.
It was true. Sutherland's wife had been arrested. Shirley Douglas was a celebrated actor in her own right, and the daughter of one of the most famous politicians in Canadian history. Her father was Tommy Douglas, the founder of public healthcare in Canada and leader of the federal NDP. She'd been born in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression, right in the middle of a dust storm, and was raised there while her dad served as premier of the province. She won her first acting award as a teenager in Regina before leaving to study theatre — first in Banff and then in England. She soon married the heir to a Canadian brewing fortune, had a kid, got divorced, appeared in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, and then spent two years founding an artists' colony in Sardinia with a Spanish nobleman who she called "one of the truly great homosexuals of Europe."
It was there, in Italy, that she would fall in love with Donald Sutherland.
Sutherland had been born in Saint John and grew up on the East Coast before moving to Toronto. He attended U of T and performed on stage at Hart House as a member of the UC Follies. Then, he headed for England himself. Soon, he was appearing in the theatres of the West End where he made quite an impression as a tall, lanky and talented Canadian. One night after a performance, he was approached backstage by a pair of filmmakers who offered him his first real movie role. It was a low-budget Italian horror flick called Castle of the Living Dead, starring Christopher Lee. In return for playing multiple characters (including an old hag who lived in a cave), they could give him $50 a week, the director's couch to crash on, and a train ticket to Rome. He accepted.
Sutherland wouldn't be in Italy for long. The production was a whirlwind; the whole movie only took a few weeks to film. Almost every shot was done in one take and nearly the entire film was set at one old castle. But it was during those few weeks in 1963 that Sutherland and Douglas met. By then, she was living in Rome where she was doing the English dubbing for Italian films. The two young actors, both just beginning what would prove to be wildly successfully careers, seem to have fallen quickly and deeply in love.
There was, however, one big complication. Donald Sutherland was already married. He had met his wife at school in Toronto; they'd moved to England together. But in the face of his new romance, his marriage wouldn't last. He got divorced three years later, married Douglas within months, and she soon gave birth to twins. They named their boy in honour of the director of Castle of the Living Dead, the movie that had brought them together. The director's name was Warren Kiefer, so their son would be called Kiefer Sutherland.
By then, Donald Sutherland's career was about to take off. Since his time in Italy, there had been more horror films, more plays, and some TV shows. But now, The Dirty Dozen was being released. Sutherland appeared alongside Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine and John Cassavetes as part of an all-star cast. It would prove to be the highest grossing film of 1967. And with his career on the rise, he and his new wife decided to move to Los Angeles.
That’s where Shirley Douglas became involved with the Black Panthers.
She had, of course, been raised with strong moral and political convictions. Having grown up on the Prairies during the Great Depression and the Second World War, she'd seen plenty of hardship. And she had also witnessed first-hand her father's role in the rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, forerunner of the NDP. "I have a very happy memory of those years," she would later tell The Toronto Star, "because of my mother and my father and the building of the party. In spite of all the disasters around us, there was a very positive outlook in our house, very hopeful." She grew up on the campaign trail, in town halls and on long drives across the province. She was still a baby when her father was first elected to parliament, nine years old when he became premier. He won re-election over and over again throughout her youth and cemented his place in Canadian history as the champion of universal healthcare when she was still a young woman.
Douglas followed in her father's leftist footprints. When she and her new husband arrived in the United States during the upheaval of the 1960s, she was eager to do her part. In California, she became involved in the protests against the Vietnam War and then with the Civil Rights Movement. Having attended a Black Panther meeting where she asked what white allies could do, she helped to establish an organization called the Friends of the Black Panthers. It mostly seems to have involved hosting brunches that raised money for the Panthers' breakfast program, ensuring kids wouldn't have to go to school hungry. But she would soon find herself accused of doing much more than that.
This was 1969. That year, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, claimed the Black Panthers were "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." Law enforcement agencies across the United States were waging a campaign against the organization. It was, according to historian Frank J. Donner, author of a book about police repression in American cities, "a program to destroy the Panthers… to wipe out the group." There were raids in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit, Denver, Sacramento… Some descended into bloody shoot outs that left officers wounded and Black Panthers dead. Scores of people were arrested. "By the end of 1969, across the country," Donner writes, "it was estimated that thirty Panthers were facing capital punishment, forty faced life in prison, about 55 faced terms of up to thirty years, and another 155 were in jail or being sought."
It was a frightening time for the Friends of the Black Panthers, too. "Everything was kind of easy for about six months," Douglas later remembered, "then all hell started breaking loose in the country. Martin Luther King was killed. The war was escalating. The next three of four years were just mind-boggling."
And it wasn't just the police. The Friends found themselves targeted by a group of right-wing Cuban exiles. Harassment and vandalism were just the beginning; one member was stabbed, another raped. Douglas and the rest of the members were legitimately afraid for their safety.
That's where a man named James Jarrett comes into the story. He had joined the Friends telling them that he was a former Green Beret who'd worked for the CIA as an assassination specialist in Southeast Asia. He was a strange and paranoid man who couldn't walk into a room without searching it, refused to sit with his back to the door or to have his photo taken, worried phones were bugged, spoke in code, and was always wearing his sunglasses. The others didn't trust him; they were downright scared of him. But when he offered to give them some self-defence training, they took him up on it. And they eventually asked him if he could get them some pepper spray or mace they could use for protection.
That was the chance he'd been waiting for.
They made the arrangements, which seemed pretty mundane. Jarrett would drop off the spray with one of the group's leaders, Donald Freed. Shirley Douglas would pay for it, leaving a cheque in her mailbox for him to pick up. But even though it sounded innocuous, that simple plan would bring everything crashing down.
It was before dawn one autumn morning that Jarrett showed up at Freed's apartment with the delivery, a box wrapped in brown paper. He was behaving even more strangely than usual. He demanded Freed pay him on the spot and kept trying to get him to say that the delivery was meant for the Black Panthers, not for the Friends of the Black Panthers. It was weird. Something wasn't right.
They would soon learn truth. James Jarrett wasn't who he pretended to be. He was an undercover agent working for the Los Angeles Police Department. He was wearing a wire that morning. And the box he had just delivered wasn't filled with pepper spray. It was filled with hand grenades.
As part of their campaign against the Black Panthers, law enforcement agencies had sent countless agents in to infiltrate the group. Even the number three Panther in the country turned out to be a police informant. The agents were known to encourage violent plots, exaggerate threats, and plant evidence in order to get charges laid. And they didn't stop there. "The planting of contraband," according to Donner, "seems to have been only one step in a multifaceted dirty tricks offensive."
Meanwhile, the authorities had also been paying plenty of attention to the Friends of the Black Panthers, intimidating them, interrupting their breakfast programs. Shirley Douglas later got to read her FBI file. It was three thousand pages long. "It was so extraordinary to realize the naivete of us all," she later told The Star. "I don't think any of us expected to read what we read about ourselves. There was this enormous police force who did nothing but follow you around. So much attention was paid to your every move."
And now, they had their opening. Just minutes after Jarrett left Freed with his cheque, the FBI burst into the apartment along with officers from the LAPD and the Treasury Department. They arrested Freed and seized the grenades they had just delivered as evidence of the Friends' violent intentions.
Their morning wasn't done there. At about 5:30am, seventeen agents burst into the home of Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland. They had come to arrest her, too. “They broke the door down,” Sutherland later explained. "The FBI guys stuck a gun to my 10-year-old [stepson]'s head." They told the boy they were arresting his mother and that if they had their way she would never go free. The twins were left crying in the other room.
Jarrett was there, celebrating his victory. "[He] was running around… singing in sort of a sing-song," Douglas remembered, "'I've got the two biggies! I've got the two biggies!" When someone commented on how calm she seemed, he replied, "Of course, it's her Communist training. Her father's the head of the Communist party in Canada!"
She was charged with conspiracy to possesses illegal explosives. She would spend the next five days in jail. She was facing the potential of ten years in prison.
As she and Freed began to work on their defence, the harassment continued. The police recruited another informant from inside their legal team. Lawyers' offices were broken into; files, recordings and lists of witnesses were stolen. The LAPD even illegally wiretapped conversations between the clients and their attorneys. To Douglas, it felt like the entire country was against her. "That's a terrific statement, you know," she later told The Star, "'The People of the United States' against…' And you think, 'Oh, my God, it's all 250 million of them against me.' It's an overwhelming feeling."
In the end, she would win. The case never even went to trial. The charges were thrown out of court. But it consumed two years of her life. And her marriage didn't survive to see the end of it.
“I was pretty overwhelmed by Shirley," Sutherland once admitted. "It was like flagging a bus and getting run over.” When she got arrested, the couple agreed that it was best if he stayed in Yugoslavia to finish Kelly's Heroes. Instead, it was her father who flew to Los Angeles to be at her side. By then, Tommy Douglas was the leader of the federal NDP. The fact his daughter had just been charged with buying grenades for the Black Panthers led to some awkward questions. But he was staunch in his support. "I am proud of the fact that my daughter believes, as I do," he told the press, "that hungry children should be fed whether they are Black Panthers or white Republicans or any other needy children for that matter."
Shirley Douglas and Donald Sutherland would separate just a few weeks later. But it clearly wasn't over politics. His next relationship was with Jane Fonda and "Hanoi Jane" was even more notorious for her left-wing views. She was arrested just a month before they started filming Klute together and helped raise bail money for the Black Panthers. She and Sutherland originally met because they were both active in the anti-war movement. Together, they started a group called the Entertainment Industry for Peace and Justice and organized an anti-war road show for the troops called The FTA Show — a play on a popular phrase with soldiers at the time: "Fuck The Army." They'd even turn it into a documentary. Sutherland wasn't exactly shy with his own political beliefs. Decades later, he would learn that he was placed on a National Security Agency watchlist.
The FTA Show was still on the road when Sutherland filed for divorce. And while his affair with Jane Fonda didn’t last, he'd soon be married again. He fell in love with the Québecois actor Francine Racette. This time, it would last fifty-two years. They would be together for the rest of his life.
The charges against Shirley Douglas were finally dismissed the same year she and Sutherland got divorced. But the ordeal didn't end there. The government would spend years trying to get her deported. And in the end, when her work permit was denied, she had no choice. She moved back home to Canada, settling in Toronto. She would spend the rest of her life here and become a familiar face on Canadian television over the next half century — from playing Nellie McClung in the 1970s to appearing on Street Legal and Road To Avonlea and Wind At My Back in the 1990s to Corner Gas and Degrassi: The Next Generation in the twenty-first century. She even did the narration for Franklin. She remained steadfast in her politics, too; she co-founded the first Canadian chapter of Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament, campaigned for the NDP, spoke at protests in Toronto, and argued passionately in defence of universal healthcare.
Their children grew up here, too. The twins were still eight years old when they moved to Toronto. They lived at Crescent Town for a while, next to Victoria Park Station, but Kiefer Sutherland went to high school all over the city: Harbord, Martingrove, Silverthorn, Malvern… before finally dropping out. Both twins would work in the same industry as their parents: his sister Rachel would become a post-production supervisor, while he would pursue acting. His career had started in LA as a kid; it was Donald Freed, who was not just an activist but also a successful playwright, who cast him in his first stage role.
Growing up, Kiefer didn't see his father much. And since his dad's films were meant for adults, he didn't watch many of them until he was seventeen. He was back in LA again, about to film Stand by Me. "I was staying at a family friend’s house until I got an apartment, and he had … Beta tapes of every film my father had made. So in about two or three days, I watched Don’t Look Now, 1900, Casanova, Ordinary People, Day of the Locust, Klute, and M*A*S*H… I think that was kind of a seminal moment for me… The moment where I discovered that, certainly as an actor, he was someone I would want to emulate.”
It was Kiefer Sutherland who announced his father's death on Twitter last week — and who had to do the same for his mother four years ago. Two giants of Canadian culture who fell in love in an age of conflict and turmoil, who entertained millions, and who weren't afraid to risk it all in the hope of making the world a slightly better place.
If you prefer listening to reading, I also shared a much shorter version of this tale — along with a brief mention of another strange love story from the 1960s — on my Weird Toronto History radio segment this week. You can listen to it here.
Weird Toronto History airs every Tuesday afternoon at 3:20pm on Newstalk 1010.
You can read Frank J. Donner’s “Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America,” (which has the most detailed account of the undercover operation and the FBI raid) at the Toronto Reference Library. Much of the rest of the information in this post comes from The Toronto Star and Globe and Mail archives, which you can access through the Toronto Public Library here. Donald Sutherland shared his memories of Clint Eastwood telling him the news with Joe Leydon, as he reports in a problematically-named magazine here. Kiefer Sutherland also shares the story about watching his dad’s movies there too. Donald Sutherland told Brian D. Johnson meeting Douglas was like getting run over by a bus here. Roberto Curti wrote about the filming of “Castle of the Living Dead” here. And you can find Jane Fonda’s autobiography, “My Life So Far,” available to borrow from the Toronto Public Library here.
The Toronto History Weekly needs your help! The number of paid subscriptions has slipped a little bit over the couple of months. And since this newsletter involves a ton of work every week, it’s only by growing the number of paid subscriptions that I’ll be able to continue doing it. Thank you so, so much to everyone who already has — and if you’d to make the switch yourself, you can do it by clicking right here:
A Free Talk & Tour for Canada Day!
This Monday, I’ll be giving a free talk and tour for Canada Day! I’m still kicking around a few ideas, but I suspect it’s going to be filled with strange stories about the Fathers of Confederation. (For instance, did you know that they were such a diverse group that two of them were named John Hamilton Gray?!)
It’ll be happening at St. James Park (on King Street East right next to St. James Cathedral) as part of the community celebrations being hosted by the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, with my portion sponsored by the Town of York Historical Society.
I’ve Extended the Registration Period For “A Scorching Hot History of Summer in Toronto”
It’s been a busy little while over here at Bunch HQ, so I’ve decided to push the start date for my first new course in ages back a little bit — which means you’ve now got more time to registrater for four nights filled with fascinating, strange and illuminating tales from Toronto’s summer months…
Canada might be famous for its winters, but Toronto comes alive when the weather gets warm. Our city was once billed as "the most delightful summer city" on the continent. And those few hot months between Victoria Day and the CNE have had a profound impact on this place: from heated legal battles over skinny dipping to the legacy of killer summer storms to the joyful festivals that have reflected the changing face of the city over the last two hundred years. And so, in this online course we'll spend four nights exploring some of the most fascinating, most revealing and weirdest stories from the history of summers in Toronto.
The course will now kick off on the night of Thursday, July 25. And if you’re interested but concerned you might have to miss some classes, don’t worry — all the lectures will be recorded and posted to a private YouTube playlist so you can watch them whenever you like. Oh, and paid subscribers to the newsletter get 10% off!
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
THE ROOF ISN’T REALLY ABOUT TO COLLAPSE NEWS — If you’re a subscriber to this newsletter, then there’s a very good chance you’ve already been following this news story very closely. The Ontario Science Centre was suddenly and shockingly closed this week by Doug Ford’s provincial government. They cited an engineer’s report they claim means they had no choice but to close it immediatley for public safety. But Alex Bozikovic argues that the report doesn’t say any such thing here.
Many others have agreed. And as the Canadian Press reports here, that includes “The firm of the late architect who designed the Ontario Science Centre [which] says the province's decision to immediately close its doors over a problem with the roof was ‘absurd’ and motivated by politics rather than safety concerns… The firm wants the province to reverse its decision and has offered its services free of charge to help.” In the days since, many others have come forward offering money to fund any necessary repairs.
More than 60,000 people have already signed a letter urging the government to keep the Science Centre open. You can add your name here, if you agree.
Jamie Bradburn rushed to the Science Centre when he heard the news and was there in its final (at least for now) hours. He wrote about it for TVO here. He also wrote a piece for The Toronto Star, aruging that by closing the building prematurely the Ford government has robbed Ontarians of a chance to say goodbye to the beloved landmark, here.
I wrote about the extraordinary life and work of the Science Centre’s architect, Raymond Moriyama, after he passed away last year. You can read “The Concrete & Hope of Raymond Moriyama” here.
MEANWHLIE AT ONTARIO PLACE NEWS — The government’s stated plan, of course, is to eventually move the Science Centre to a much smaller space at Ontario Place — which many have suggested is meant to give themselves cover to turn much of that site into a private megaspa. This week there was heartbreaking news from the waterfront as the demolition there has begun. At the same time, an organization called Ontario Place Protectors are seeking an injunction to stop the work. Read more.
OUR OLDEST CINEMA IS UNDER THREAT NEWS — We got even more sad news today as the Revue Cinema announced they haven’t been able to reach a lease agreeement with their landlord and might be forced to close as early as this weekend. The Revue has been operating since 1912, making it the oldest movie theatre in Toronto and the oldest independent cinema anywhere in Canada. Read more.
RENAMING NEWS — It has been an exceptionally busy week for Toronto heritage. City Council has also voted to move forward with the plan to rename Yonge-Dundas Square as Sankofa Square. Read more.
The Jane-Dundas branch of the Toronto Public Library will also be renamed in honour of Daniel G. Hill. He was a co-founder of the Ontario Black History Society, the first full-time director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Ontario Human Rights Commissioner, and the father of author Lawrence Hill, among many other accomplishments. Read more.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
LIBRARY PRIDE: A RARE BOOK SALON PRESENTED BY DANK SINATRA
June 27 — 12pm to 8pm with performances beginning at 6pm — Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
“Please join us for a display of special collections on LGBTQ+ topics and reading performances, hosted by Dank Sinatra with guests Ella Mayo and Ocean La Vodka Giovanni.”
Free!
TERROR IN THE TOWN OF YORK WALKING TOUR
June 28 — 10:30am — Meet at St. James Cathedral — Town of York Historical Society
“Imagine a Toronto where the tallest building is only three stories high, where Lake Ontario reaches Front Street, where the wagon wheels grind through the muddy roads, the air smells of smoke and animal, and the surrounding lands is farms, fields, and forests. This was what the neighbourhood looked like in the early 1800s. In this walking tour, join us as we explore the beginnings of the area that would become the Town of York, the events leading up to the War of 1812, the Battle of York, and its aftermath while we walk the original 10 blocks of the early city.”
$22.63 for non-members; $17.31 for members.
TRIBUTE TO NATION BUILDERS CEREMONY
July 1 — 10:30am — Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial — The Foundation to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers
“Join us, in their honour, and listen to the history from the descendants of the Chinese Railway Workers and be a part of this historic milestone.”
Free!
TORONTO GONE WILD
Until August 3 — Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm to 4pm — Museum of Toronto
“Toronto Gone Wild explores the city as a multi-layered habitat — starring the animals, plants, and insects that call Toronto home. Venture through different Torontonian terrains from city streets to burrows, hives, and nests, all seamlessly woven together in our downtown exhibition space. You’ll emerge with a renewed appreciation for the interconnectedness of life in the city.”
Free!
THE TORONTO HISTORY LECTURE: REBUILDING THE BODY IN WWI TORONTO
August 6 — 7:30pm — Online — Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society
“At the end of the First World War, wounded soldiers were coming home in huge numbers, and the country was scrambling for space to treat them all. By 1919, the Christie Street Hospital opened in a renovated cash register factory. Kristen den Hartog’s 2024 Toronto History Lecture gives us a glimpse of this fascinating place, of its diverse group of patients and staff, and the role it played in Toronto’s rich history.”
Free with registration!
HERITAGE TORONTO WALKING TOURS
Until October
“Through our events, including tours, community discussions, the Heritage Toronto Awards, and more, Heritage Toronto engages the public to reflect on the city’s heritage.”
Usually $9.85
Another great story, Adam! I appreciate your focus on interesting women in history. I’ve always been a huge fan of Donald Sutherland but knew little about Shirley Douglas. This was a great peek into her activist life.