Ontario police considered ‘covert’ surveillance of anti-government group ahead of Freedom Convoy

The Ontario Provincial Police’s intelligence division recommended that the pressure take into account “covert” surveillance into an anti-government group forward of the Freedom Convoy’s arrival in Ottawa, newly-released paperwork reveal.

The suggestion got here as a part of the OPP’s Mission HENDON, a greater than two-year rolling investigation into “felony extremism” and “large-scale protest” actions in Ontario in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The beforehand secret intelligence experiences had been launched as proof within the Public Order Emergency Fee, which is analyzing the federal authorities’s choice to invoke emergency powers throughout February’s convoy protests.

The group singled out by the OPP, “Plaid Military,” is a loosely-connected group of livestreamers, which the Canadian Anti-Hate Community says focuses on far-right politics and anti-government sentiment, mixing in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic messaging. The group can also be related to “Diagalon,” a far-right group that has not too long ago garnered media consideration.

The time period “anti-government” on this sense doesn’t imply actions against particular events in energy, however is as an alternative towards authorities authority typically. Such teams have been energetic in protests towards Justin Trudeau’s Liberal authorities, but in addition conservative governments on the provincial ranges, as an example.

Figures related to each Plaid Military and Diagalon had been current in the course of the February protests in Ottawa. Footage of weapons and physique armour seized from a gaggle of convoy protesters in Coutts, Alberta, included patches that seem to characterize the “Diagalon” image.

The Jan. 13 OPP report recommended Plaid Military was a subset of the broader “Patriot Motion,” which stays “steadfast of their opposition of provincial and federal authorities responses to the COVID-19 public well being disaster.”

“Adherents who determine extra in order a part of the ‘Plaid Military/Bigots’ are believed to espouse ideologies aligned with utilizing pressure as a method of effecting authorities change. Police data continues to help this assertion,” the intelligence evaluation reads.

“These teams are famous to be scattered throughout the province and are accessed by on-line boards, phrase of mouth, and invitations following public occasions. Personal social media platforms additionally seem like facilitating/supporting a excessive stage of organizing.”

The doc went on to recommend that to ensure that the OPP to achieve higher understanding of each the Patriot Motion and Plaid Military, it will be well worth the pressure contemplating recruiting “sources” inside the motion or deploying “occasion screens” at in-person occasions.

“This might help in figuring out entry factors into the extra extremist-minded anti-government organizing that’s happening on the grassroots stage and on-line areas. Moreover, operational investigative avenues could warrant exploration together with supply, surveillance, covert and technological investigations,” the doc concludes.

The Mission HENDON experiences current a uncommon, inside have a look at OPP intelligence operations, together with how the pressure collects intelligence and what steps the pressure has thought-about in countering anti-government and far-right extremist threats. Exterior of a judicial inquiry, it’s unlikely any of those paperwork would see the sunshine of day besides in a heavily-censored kind.

Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton College professor and former analyst for the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service, mentioned the OPP has “taken the lead” on investigating far-right extremism in Ontario since 9/11 – when federal intelligence companies pivoted their assets to give attention to the specter of religiously-motivated extremism from overseas.

“(The OPP) usually temporary police departments on the far-right menace,” Carvin advised World Information in an interview Friday.

“Even simply having learn the assessments (launched to the convoy fee), it appears clear that that (the OPP had been) conscious of who these teams had been earlier than the convoy itself. And it appears affordable to recommend that they’d have been conscious of those teams previous to the convoy, as a result of that’s their remit.”

World Information requested OPP touch upon the HENDON experiences on Thursday. As of Friday’s deadline, the pressure had not responded to the request.

However proof launched to the Public Order Emergencies Fee this week recommended that the provincial pressure had correct intelligence concerning the potential scale of the convoy protests nicely earlier than vans began rolling into downtown Ottawa.

“On-line indicators of attendance at a given occasion are normally inflated … The famous convoys could also be an exception,” learn a Jan. 20 HENDON report, which, in line with OPP testimony, was shared with the Ottawa police.

The evaluation was made greater than every week earlier than the vans arrived in Ottawa.

The report went on to say that whereas OPP intelligence was unable to foretell the variety of autos and protesters that may be concerned with the convoy protests every week later, the success of on-line fundraising recommended that the guy vacationers weren’t simply ideologically dedicated but in addition financially dedicated.

“Regardless of the data indicating that some organizers are aiming for a lawful and peaceable occasion, the likelihood {that a} lone actor or small teams of people could determine to have interaction in, or encourage, direct motion or illegal exercise that presents a public security menace can’t be excluded.”

On Feb. 7, the OPP’s intelligence department decided that the convoy protests introduced a possible menace to nationwide safety, in line with Commissioner Thomas Carrique’s earlier testimony earlier than parliament.

On Wednesday, Pat Morris, the pinnacle of OPP intelligence, mentioned that the pressure was not conscious of any “credible” and “particular” threats in the course of the protest. However Morris offered the caveat that he was talking about intelligence indicating a gaggle or teams had a selected goal and a plan of assault – not the potential menace the convoy protests posed, in line with OPP intelligence assessments.

“I’ll provide you with an instance. ‘On Feb. 2, at 18:30 hours, we’re going to breach safety to the West (Block) of Parliament,’ et cetera. And I’ve been engaged in protests earlier than the place issues like which have occurred,” Morris advised the fee.

“And we might discover no credible intelligence of these sorts of threats.”

The fee into the federal government’s use of emergency powers is scheduled to renew on Monday.