Edward Mazerall was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1916. After earning a bachelor of science in engineering, he worked for the Canadian Westinghouse Company and the CBC. He was employed by the National Research Council at the time he was detained. Most of the information that he relayed to the Soviets (through Gordon Lunan) was based on research and development work on radio sets. Mazerall later claimed that all of it had already been made public and that he had acted in the hope of increasing scientific cooperation between East and West. He admitted that he passed on confidential information to Lunan. He was subsequently found guilty of conspiracy to violate the Official Secrets Act and was sentenced to four years in prison.