Early in the morning of July 8, RCMP officers arrested four suspects, two of them active military members, in an alleged plot to form an anti -government militia.
The Mounties argue that the group had stored a treasure of weapons, including dozens of firearms and 11,000 rounds of ammunition, as part of a plan to take control of a piece of land near the city of Quebec by force.
Three of the suspects, including one of the active military, face terrorism charges. A judge will rule on Thursday if he gives them bail.
In many ways, the police operation that led the arrests had no precedents. It is believed that it is the first time that an active member of the Canadian army has been accused of crimes related to terrorism.
And the cache of the seized weapons as part of this case is among the largest in a Canadian terrorism investigation, according to Jessica Davis, director of the consulting firm Insight Threat Intelligence.
But the suspicious cases of extreme right -wing are not new for Canadian forces. It has been a recurring problem for more than 30 years, one that the army has dealt with intermittent resolution and unequal results.
Somalia: The first calculation
The first major adjustment of the forces with extremism occurred after Canadian paratrooides tortured and killed a 16 -year -old boy, Shidane Arone, while he was in a mission of maintenance of peace in Somalia in 1993.
The government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien dissolved the air regiment shortly after. The government then shortened an investigation that investigates deeper problems within the unity that lead to death.
But the final research report still revealed that the deposit prior to the deployment, the regiment members showed the flags of Swastikas and Ku Klux Klan in the CFB Petawawa.
“[N]It was known that EO-Nazis and other varieties of white supremacists were present among car members, “said the research report.
Only one of the soldiers involved in Arone’s murder received a sentence of more than a year.
“After the Somali matter, there really was silence. We really didn’t listen much about what was happening in the army,” said Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario Tech who studied extremism within the Canadian army.
“Without a doubt, there were still problems internally, but it wasn’t something that nobody from abroad could look.”
For the first time, an active member of the Canadian Armed Forces faces a burden related to terrorism, but extremism in the ranks has been a concern for decades. For the National, Jonathan Montpetit of CBC explains how the military has been trying to handle the problem for almost 30 years.
From the right to the neo -Nazis
Another series of extreme right activity in the army was revealed in the 2010 decade, in large part due to reports by media and anti -fascism activists.
These incidents coincided with the emergence of the so-called “Alt-Right”, a movement to make radical ideals taster for the conventional public, as well as the proliferation of online extremist networks.
In 2015, for example, some veterans of the Mission of Afghanistan of Canada founded the Islamophobic group Meute in Quebec.
TO Radio-Canada research They found at least 75 active duty members joined the group’s private page, which at that time contained around 43,000 profiles.
The army told its members to leave the group or risk that a warning is assigned to their registration.
In 2017, four active military members in Halifax received probation for joining the proud children, a group of white supremacist who now considered a terrorist entity.
Around this time, several reservists were also identified as taxpayers to more extreme neo -Nazis groups and online forums.
In An incidentA reservist at the Royal Canadian Navy published in Iron March, a forum now missing for the neo -Nazis, encouraging others to join the military to acquire combat skills.
“They pay you to show you the methods you need to destroy them,” the reservist published in 2016. He was released by the Navy in 2021.
Winnipeg Free Press revealed that another reservist, Patrik Mathews, was a member of the Neonazi the Base.
Mathews, who was discharged after the affiliation was made public, is currently fulfilling a nine -year prison sentence in the United States for participating in a plot to begin a racial war.
But in general, during these years, the military rarely took significant measures against suspicious cases of extremism and hateful behavior, according to Documents obtained By CBC News in 2019.
Of 50 cases of alleged hate behavior registered between 2013 and 2018, only four resulted in disciplinary measures. It was more common for the military to issue warnings, probation or simply release problematic soldiers.
Obstacleized researchers
However, the scrutiny of the military increased with each revelation, and in 2020, under the breath of the then Head of Defense Jonathan Vance, a team of researchers received $ 750,000 to study the problem.
But the members of the research team say they felt hindered by non -cooperative military leadership, who prevented them from interviewing the soldiers and blocking access to the facilities.
“My attention was that Vance and CAF wanted to be able to point out something about the IMVE problem [ideologically motivated violent extremism] In the ranks without really having to discover the scope and depth of the problem, or at least make independent researchers confirm it, “said Leah West, a professor at the University of Carleton who was part of the research team. A publication on social networks Shortly after the arrests of the Quebec city earlier this month.
Also in 2020, not long after Black Lives Matter’s protests, the federal government He summoned a panel Study hate and discrimination with forces.
Among the main recommendations of the panel, when it was launched Your report Two years later, it was for the military to pay more attention to the litany of previous studies and recommendations on these same issues.
“There were many recommendations that were given, and there was no great constant monitoring about what they did,” said the member of the Derek Montour panel, a former American sailor who directs the Kahnawà community services: Ke Shakoti”takéhnhas, south of Montreal.
Montour said that the panel also found that military leadership was often badly prepared to recognize and treat hate and extremism incidents.
“The training of leaders about what to do when they see it is limited, so they feel alone. They are not sure where to inform,” he said. “All these factors generate a basis for vulnerability to these [hate] groups “.
New system to track hate incidents
In recent years, the military has been establishing a new system that says that it will allow them to better track hate incidents inside the ranks.
The National Defense Department shared figures with CBC News shown since 2020, there have been 120 reports of military members who promote or show hate entered into the system, including 20 so far this year alone.
Another column shows that, in the same period, there have been 16 membership reports or participation in a hate group. It is not clear in the figures how many of the reports are based or lead to disciplinary measures.
Earlier this month, the citizen of Ottawa reported that the reservists in the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa maintained a Facebook group that supposedly contained anti -Semitic, homophobic and racist comments.
An investigation carried out by the Military Police, which preceded citizen revelations, found no evidence of a crime of service.
Since then a new investigation has been opened and Commander of the responsible Brigade Because the unit has resigned.
The national defense did not respond to the repeated requests of an interview about their efforts to deal with extremism in the army.
In a statement, a spokesman said that the army is committed to the “cultural change” necessary to become a more inclusive workplace and has implemented new protocols and training resources.
The statement added “While we have made great progress, we know that there is still more work to do.”
Perry said he helped train military officials on how to detect extrem right -wing when new protocols were implemented, only for interest to decrease again during the pandemic.
“I think this particular case [in Quebec City] … Obviously he has put that directly on the public agenda and for the military too, “he said.
