Federal officials expected nationwide protest from RCMP action at Wet’suwet’en camp

Toronto protesters block a roadway in solidarity with Unist’ot’en in response to RCMP raid. Photo: Facebook

Government Operations Centre conducted risk assessment in 2015

by Jorge Barrera, CBC News,  Jan 12, 2019

Federal officials have long expected a nationwide fallout of protests from an eventual RCMP action against the Wet’suwet’en nation over the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline, internal documents show.

Federal agency seeks to widen surveillance beyond Idle No More to any demonstrators in Canada

Police videotaping anti-Olympic protesters in Vancouver, 2008.

David Pugliese, National Post/Postmedia News | June 5, 2014

The federal government is expanding its surveillance of public activities to include all known demonstrations across the country, a move that collects information even on the most mundane of protests by Canadians.
The email requesting such information was sent out Tuesday by the Government Operations Centre in Ottawa to all federal departments.
“The Government Operations Centre is seeking your assistance in compiling a comprehensive listing of all known demonstrations which will occur either in your geographical area or that may touch on your mandate,” noted the email, leaked to the Citizen.

“We will compile this information and make this information available to our partners unless of course, this information is not to be shared and not available on open sources. In the case of the latter, this information will only be used by the GOC for our Situational Awareness.”
The Government Operations Centre or GOC is supposed to provide strategic-level coordination on behalf of the federal government “in response to an emerging or occurring event affecting the national interest.”

Canada’s Spy Groups Divulge Secret Intelligence to Energy Companies

Documents raise fears that info on environmentalists, Indigenous groups and more shared with industry at biannual, secret-level, briefings.

Police conducting video surveillance of anti-2010 Olympics protest, Vancouver 2008.

by Tim Groves, The Dominion, October 10, 2012

TORONTO—The Canadian government has been orchestrating briefings that provide energy companies with classified intelligence from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other agencies, raising concerns that federal officials are spying on environmentalists and First Nations in order to provide information to the businesses they criticize.