Members of the First Nation Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam bands paddle in a traditional canoe during a Thanksgiving protest in North Vancouver, British Columbia October 14, 2013. REUTERS/Andy ClarkANDY CLARK/Reuters
This country has an unfortunate history of what a former Alberta law-enforcement official dubbed "eco-tage." The modern tradition includes the Squamish Five, irascible Alberta farmer Wiebo Ludwig, and the persons unknown who blew up an oil-industry spokesman's car near Montreal and firebombed a former oil-sands company president's house in Edmonton.
In other words, there are strong reasons why the RCMP would keep an eye out for any radicals who would target Canada's energy infrastructure. But keeping an eye out for violent extremists does not mean keeping an eye on the vast majority of peaceful, law-abiding environmentalists.
A 2014 internal RCMP analysis, obtained by Greenpeace, provides a revealing glimpse into the force's approach. The report clearly states peaceful dissent is not the target, but the way it is written sometimes strays onto slippery terrain, conflating mainstream environmental groups, legitimate protest and extremism.
The document mentions the threat of a "growing pan-national – fringe – violent extremist faction that is ideologically opposed to the Canadian petroleum industry." There clearly is a large anti-petroleum and anti-oil-sands movement, but evidence is not offered that it is growing violent.
The report also dwells at length on a July 2013 protest in which six RCMP cruisers were torched and police seized weapons and home-made bombs that "violent extremists intended to use."
The arsenal apparently belonged to members of New Brunswick's Elsipogtog First Nation, which virulently opposes shale-gas development. The band has other long-standing grievances, but it's not clear they have ties to any "pan-national fringe."
There is always the possibility of security threats, but it should be heartening that, other than the 2013 incident in New Brunswick, the most recent instance of anti-industry violence cited in the report dates back to 2011. As for Mr. Ludwig, he died in 2012. The Quebec car bomb was set nearly nine years ago. The Squamish Five are in advanced middle age; one of them is writing a memoir.
It's appropriate for the RCMP to be worried about credible threats from "a small, but violence-prone faction." But it has to draw a clear line between people genuinely suspected of being criminals, and the mass of run-of-the-mill, entirely legal opponents of the oil patch.