Defense Minister David McGuinty described the accusations that military members were part of an “disturbing” extremist plot, but backed up against the accusations that the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are not doing enough to change their culture.
The minister spoke briefly with journalists on Thursday outside a command change ceremony. They were his first public comments since the RCMP accused four men, including two members of CAF and a former member, accumulating a treasure of weapons and explosives as part of a scheme to take care of the Earth near the city of Quebec.
“It is deeply worrying. We completely reject this type of behavior, this beliefs, this system, these activities,” he said.
“This is disturbing, of course, but we are advancing in reconstruction, rearming and revitalizing the Canadian Armed Forces.”
CPL. Marc-Aurèle Chabot, Simon Angers-Audet and Raphaël Lagacé have been accused of the serious crime of facilitating a terrorist activity. The RCMP said they were planning to form an “anti -government militia.”
Angers-Audet’s father told the Presse that his son previously served in the army. Lagace’s Facebook account shows that he was involved with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets.
CPL. Matthew Forbes, which served in CFB Valcartier with Chabot, faces charges that include unauthorized possession of firearms and illegal transfer devices.
The police characterized the plot as an act of “violent extremism motivated ideologically.”
The accusations have not been tested in court.
‘Sophisticated and deep research’
McGuinty said that extremism “is not something that is unknown to the Armed Forces around the world.”
“I think what he says is that the question of extremism is something that is found throughout Canadian society,” said the minister, who before joining the cabinet was president of one of the country’s national security guards.
He would not provide details about the case that is just beginning his trip through the justice system.
The Minister of Defense, David McGuinty, directed the accusations of the RCMP on Thursday accusing four men, including two members of the Canadian Armed Forces, of accumulating a treasure of weapons and conspiring to take land near the city of Quebec.
McGuinty said the charges follow a “sophisticated and deep research.”
While the motivation of the four defendants is still large unknown, the armed forces have been under pressure for years to better manage soldiers attracted by the opinions and extremism of hate.
A recent report of the military advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination found that the number of members belonging to extremist groups was increasing.
The report called the Army for not doing enough to detect white supremacists and other violent extremists and prevent them from infiltrating their ranks, despite a mounting of reports and surveys that point to the problem.
It occurred after an American judge condemned former Manitoba Army, Patrik Mathews to nine years in prison for charges related to what the FBI described as a neo -Nazi plot to instigate a racial war in the United States.
Another report, this one of the former judge of the Supreme Court Louise Arbor, requested cultural changes following multiple accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior.
Both made a series of recommendations to clean the force of force.
“Many recommendations have been implemented. The changes have been affected,” McGuinty said. “There is so much activity that is positive. That’s where my approach is”
Two active members of the Canadian armed forces are among the four Quebec men accused of being part of an alleged anti -government plot that meant creating a militia and turning off land.
Professor at the University of Reina Amarrarasingam, who has investigated the overlap between extremism and military serviceHe said that the efforts of the Armed Forces are still in their childhood: studying and working with experts to develop approaches to detect and eliminate extremist elements.
“It’s still very early,” he told CBC’s The current
He said that getting the degree of extremism in CAF is a difficult task.
“It is a bit more complicated than, for example, if you find an ISIS supporter,” he said, whose ideology is clearer and the organization is a listed terrorist entity.
The ideologically motivated extremism “directs the range between someone who is looking at the Incel ideology, to the accelerators, to the Skinheads neo -Nazis of the old school,” he said.
“It simply becomes much more sticky, you know, where freedom of expression ends and where part of this hate speech begins.”
The four defendants remain in custody and are back in court on Monday.
