Very ominous
Environmental
Activists Pose Security Threat: Canadian Government
Canadians
going to Keystone XL protest 'better take precautions'
15
February, 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.
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