Did the RCMP have grounds to spy on Northrop Frye?

The RCMP Security Service once spied on famed literary scholar Northrop Frye, the Canadian Press reports.

According to newly released archival records, Canadian intelligence used a secret informant to compile a 142-page file on the renowned University of Toronto professor. Of particular interest to the RCMP was Frye's involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement and efforts to stop apartheid in South Africa.

The revered academic, who was named to the Order of Canada in 1972 and even appeared on a postage stamp following his death in 1991, seems an unlikely counter-intelligence target.

However, it was not uncommon for the Mounties to monitor influential figures who held sway with leftists during the Cold War. 

The RCMP spy agency no longer exists, and was replaced in 1984 by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Were you surprised to learn the RCMP spied on Frye? Were they justified in keeping tabs on academics and other public figures during the Cold War era? Why or why not?

(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)