Government labels environmentalists "terrorist threat" in new report

In a report released yesterday outlining the federal government’s new counter-terrorism strategy, Public Safety Canada listed environmentalists among other “issue-based domestic extremists” that could pose a threat to Canadians.

Responding to the report, Sierra Club Canada director John Bennett said this portrayal is aligned with officials’ attempts to silence environmental groups opposed to major energy projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline.

“We are one of the few segments of Canadian society that has continually stood up to the present Conservative government and been able to be effective at raising issues," said Bennett.

"As a result, they’ve decided that we’re political opponents rather than a part of the democratic dialogue. So this is just the next stage in these attacks.”

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Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced the new strategy during a meeting of international counter-terrorism experts, as part of an effort to “promote an open discussion with Canadians on the threats we face”. In addition to well-known global terrorist groups like Islamist extremists and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, Toews’ report lists a few potential domestic threats including white supremacists, animal rights activists and environmentalists.

“Although not of the same scope and scale faced by other countries, low-level violence by domestic issue-based groups remains a reality in Canada. Such extremism tends to be based on grievances—real or perceived—revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism and anti-capitalism,” the report stated.

For those in the environmental community, the characterization of environmentalism as a home-grown terrorist threat is simply the next step in a series of increasingly negative portrayals, as government officials have already publicly labeled Canadian environmental groups as “radicals” and raised concerns over their funding.

“First we're radicals, then we were agents of foreign socialist billionaires, and now we’re terrorists. This is just a classic smear campaign to marginalize environmental voices in Canada,” Bennett said.

This week’s counter-terrorism report primarily addresses other, more serious threats to public safety, only referring to environmentalism in one small section.

But for Bennett, the fact that it was included in the newly publicized strategy—and that it came out now, amidst heated national debates over environmental policy—was no coincidence.

“This was done deliberately to plant the seed in the public mind that somehow we’re a bad thing for Canada, and it’s just not true,” he said in an interview with the Observer.

Bennett warned that when governments threaten to silence opponents and curtail democratic processes, it pushes people further and further, potentially creating the conditions for more drastic or even violent action. However, he emphasizes that environmental groups in Canada tend to stick to promoting their causes through legal, non-violent activities.

“It’s certainly not something we advocate. We do not believe in doing anything in a violent way or destroying anything,” said Bennett.

Eco-terrorism in Canada

Violent incidents, such as a series of gas pipeline bombings in Northern B.C., have often been the basis for concerns around Canadian “eco-terrorism”. But so far, no proof has emerged to link these bombings to specific environmental causes or groups. Internationally, organizations like the Earth Liberation Front have claimed responsibility for other drastic actions, and there have been a few similar (yet isolated) incidents here in Canada.