William Leonard Higgitt (10 November 1917 – 2 April 1989) was the 14th Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), holding office from 1969 to 1973, and President of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) from 1972 to 1976. Leonard Higgitt's background in intelligence and counterintelligence with the RCMP, up to and during World War II, made him the preferred choice as RCMP Commissioner at what was the height of the Cold War. Higgitt also directed national security operations during the October Crisis of 1970, when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross, events which saw then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoke the War Measures Act, the first time in Canadian history that the Act was invoked during peacetime. As Commissioner, Higgitt also presided over the RCMP centenary. Early life Higgitt was born in Anerley, Saskatchewan in 1917, to Percy Higgitt and May Higgitt (née Hall). Percy Higgitt's family traces their roots to Sheffield, Yorkshire, and May Hall to Boston, Lincolnshire. Percy immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1908, meeting May Hall there and starting a farm. Leonard grew up in Anerley during the Depression years of the 1930s. His father gave up his farm homestead when Leonard was four to be an Imperial Oil agent and grain buyer for the Canadian Consolidated Grain Company; later taking over the local store and post office in Anerley, which he operated for over forty years. Percy also provided municipal public service in various capacities. After primary schooling, Leonard Higgitt went to high school in Saskatoon. Career After graduating from high school in 1937, at the age of nineteen, and two years before the breakout of World War II, Higgitt joined the RCMP at Regina, Saskatchewan. Here he completed recruit training, winning a medal for expert marksmanship, and became a stenographer at "F" Division headquarters. He remained in Regina, supervising general criminal files and engaging in active police investigations until the outbreak of the War. He was then posted to Ottawa, Ontario for special war duties and to serve in the Intelligence Branch. Higgitt became Government advisor to the Commons Judicial Committee on Internment Operations, a committee set up to identify and mitigate potential security risks to Canada and the Allied effort against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Prior to the Allies' pivotal Normandy Landings, these operations led to