Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Quebec have arrested four men allegedly involved in violent ideological extremism. Two of the accused “homegrown” terrorists were active members of the Canadian military. Police said the group planned to forcibly take possession of a parcel of land near Quebec City and create an anti-government militia.
The arrests come after a two-year investigation by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team of the RCMP. Searches were conducted in January of 2024 in the Quebec City area. That led to the seizure of explosive devices, more than 80 firearms and accessories and about 11,000 rounds of ammunition. Camille Habel is a staff sergeant with the RCMP. She said the arrests are a big win for law enforcement.
"Ideologically motivated violent extremism is something that worries the RCMP across the country," Habel said. "It’s something that is hard to investigate but really needs to be dealt with."
Three of the accused, in their 20s, were charged with facilitating terrorism, the fourth was charged with weapons offences as well as possession of smoke grenades and laser sighting equipment.
"People were actually preparing, were taking action that led us to believe that they wanted to actually achieve something and wanted to commit violent terrorist acts," Habel said.
Police said the group also took part in military style training, including shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises – using a variety of firearms and tactical equipment. However, authorities did not expand on what ideology they accuse the group of being motivated by.
One aspect of the case that’s particularly disturbing is that two of the accused were active members of the Canadian Armed Forces. Military officials would not identify who they were, but said the allegations are being taken seriously and that they are part of the investigation.
Dan Stanton is a former manager in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
"It’s quite an unsettling story," Stanton said. "But upon reflection, it’s not that surprising. Canadians have been hearing for the last three to five years that we have a problem of radicalization within the Canadian military. There have been a few task forces on it. I know CSIS has reported on it. But clearly, it’s a problem we’ve underestimated."
Stanton said it’s unlikely this was an isolated incident, and there are probably more individuals who share the motivations of the accused.
Police also allege the group created an Instagram account aimed at recruiting new members for their militia.
Bruce Pitt-Payne is a former major crimes investigator with the RCMP.
"We recently had a chat group that is now being investigated by the inner workings of the Canadian armed forces because it had extremism," Pitt-Payne said. "This is violent extremism, which should be very concerning for all of us, in that this is one where it’s not just ideology, it’s action put into place as well with the planning."
Given the number of weapons and ammunition the group had, Pitt-Payne said they could have caused a lot of harm.
Jessica Davis is the president of Insight Threat Intelligence. She is a recognized expert on terrorism.
"Those searches resulted in hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, weapons and improvised explosive devices all being seized," Davis said. "That’s the single largest cache of weapons and components in any terrorism incident in Canadian history."
Davis said there hasn’t been a terrorist attack carried out in Canada in about two years, and that suggests police and intelligence agencies are doing their jobs. She does say that 77% of terrorist attacks in the country over the past 20 years were ideologically motivated.
