Common Dreams & Stephen Leahy / The Guardian – 2013-02-18 00:26:21
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/15-10
Canadian Government Says
Environmental Activists Pose Security Threat:
Warning: Canadians Going to Keystone XL Protest
‘Better Take Precautions’
Common Dreams
ONTARIO (February 15, 2013) — The environmental activist movement in Canada has been targeted by the Canadian government as a threat to national security, according to documents recently released under a freedom of information law, the Guardian reports.
According to Jeffrey Monaghan of the Surveillance Studies Center at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, who obtained the previously unreleased government documents, security and police forces have been closely surveilling peaceful environmental activists, including many who are planning to attend the Washington DC Keystone XL Pipeline protest on Sunday.
“Any Canadians going to protest the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington DC on Sunday had better take precautions,” Monaghan told the Guardian.
“It’s the new normal now for Canada’s security agencies to watch the activities of environmental organizations,” he added.
“Security and police agencies have been increasingly conflating terrorism and extremism with peaceful citizens exercising their democratic rights to organize petitions, protest and question government policies,” Steven Leahy reports at the Guardian.
Canada’s national police force and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) say activists engage in “forms of attack” through acts of civil disobedience such as blocking access to roads or buildings.
Monaghan added that in particular, protests in opposition to Canada’s oil and gas industry are viewed as threats by Canadian authorities.
Canada’s Environmental Activists Seen
As ‘Threat to National Security’
Stephen Leahy / The Guardian
UXBRIDGE, Canada February 14, 2013) — Monitoring of environmental activists in Canada by the country’s police and security agencies has become the “new normal”, according to a researcher who has analysed security documents released under freedom of information laws.
Security and police agencies have been increasingly conflating terrorism and extremism with peaceful citizens exercising their democratic rights to organise petitions, protest and question government policies, said Jeffrey Monaghan of the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
The RCMP, Canada’s national police force, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) view activist activities such as blocking access to roads or buildings as “forms of attack” and depict those involved as national security threats, according to the documents.
Protests and opposition to Canada’s resource-based economy, especially oil and gas production, are now viewed as threats to national security, Monaghan said. In 2011 a Montreal, Quebec man who wrote letters opposing shale gas fracking was charged under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act. Documents released in January show the RCMP has been monitoring Quebec residents who oppose fracking.
“Any Canadians going to protest the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington DC on Sunday had better take precautions,” Monaghan said.
In a Canadian Senate committee on national security and defence meeting Monday Feb 11 Richard Fadden, the director of CSIS said they are more worried about domestic terrorism, acknowledging that the vast majority of its spying is done within Canada. Fadden said they are “following a number of cases where we think people might be inclined to acts of terrorism”.
Canada is at very low risk from foreign terrorists but like the US it has built a large security apparatus following 9/11. The resources and costs are wildly out of proportion to the risk said Monaghan.
“It’s the new normal now for Canada’s security agencies to watch the activities of environmental organisations,” he said.
Surveillance and infiltration of environmental protest movement has been routine in the UK for some time. In 2011 a Guardian investigation revealed that a Met police officer had been living undercover for seven years infiltrating dozens of protest groups.
Canadian security forces seem to have a “fixation” with Greenpeace, continually describing them as “potentially violent” in threat assessment documents, said Monaghan.
“We’re aware of this” said Greenpeace Canada’s executive director Bruce Cox, who met the head of the RCMP last year. “We’re an outspoken voice for non-violenceand this was made clear to the RCMP,” Cox said.
He said there was real anger among Canadians about the degradation of the natural environment by oil, gas and other extractive industries and governments working for those industries and not in the public interest. Security forces should see Greenpeace as a “plus”, a non-violent outlet for this anger, he argued. “It is governments and fossil fuel industry who are the extremists, threatening the prosperity of future generations.”
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