Project Sitka

This came to light a week or so ago and is finally getting some traction. The RCMP and other agencies have been specifically profiling Indigenous Peoples and their activities connected to protesting oil, gas and fracking. One of the conclusions from this was that while the majority were not connected to violence, the problem being is these files were collected on everyone who was involved and the files are held permanently.
Despite the obvious right to peacefully demonstrate, you will be now afforded a file with multiple law agencies which is also shared with the US.

I'm not surprised as this has always been one of the risks for taking a stand on an issue, but the fact they keep files on people who are law abiding and pose no "discernible risk" is shocking.

Then theres the separate issue of Canada's public stance on reconciliation and healing, while behind the scenes Project Sitka is used to bust up any protests making the public face of discussing the issues in good faith a farce.

Many people on this side of the border (USA) have been cognizant and suspicious that we are under surveillance the bulk of the time, it's another thing to have a report in your hand. I'm equally surprised Canada let anyone in the public get their hands on this.

This is the article that broke the news.

Notably, none of the individuals identified in Project SITKA had actually committed a crime when they became the subject of scrutiny by the RCMP. The RCMP further conclude that “there is no known evidence that these individuals pose a direct threat to critical infrastructure.”

“It was a major intrusion into a lot of people’s private activities and their movements that ended up generating absolutely no useful intelligence,” The CCLA’s McPhail said. “There’s really no justification for this sort of extensive surveillance operation.”

The civil rights group Canadian Journalists for Free Expression condemned the program’s existence on Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether Project SITKA continues to exist, a question of particular importance given recent aboriginal protests around the construction of the controversial Muskrat Falls dam and the LNG gas project in British Columbia.

The RCMP document describing Project SITKA, however, recommends that such police practices to keep tabs on indigenous activists continue.

motherboard.vice.com...

and here is Project Sitka in it's entirety
warriorpublications.files.wordpress.com...

a reply to: Caver78

The RCMP document describing Project SITKA, however, recommends that such police practices to keep tabs on indigenous activists continue.

Activist-- someone who isn't just a cog anymore. Good romans gone bad. They have become "active", like yeast spreads in bread dough, their ideas becoming actions are infectious, growing to unprecedented proportions of opinion.

Aww the humanity.

a reply to: Caver78

Like I tell everyone, do an FOIA request on yourself with the relevant agency. If they are going to keep data on everyone, then everyone should know what their individual files contain. You simply fill out an FOIA request, add a five dollar money order and the dipsh!ts have 30 days to respond. If they are going to collect information, make them tell you what information or explain why it falls under national security statutes. Make them work for their illegal and unethical collection protocols.

I did the FOIA with CSIS, I got back the 2 standard statues plus 9 national security statutes and all I wanted to do was make sure the information they had on me was correct. Of course to give me any real information would have put goverments at risk as they would have had to acknowledge all of the players involved. I know what I/we did, I just wanted to make sure they didn't have me down as something I am not.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Believe it or not I wouldn't even know where to start with that!
But like checking your credit reports it's a great idea.

a reply to: intrptr

I'm still shocked this document is now in the public review.

Was alerted to it from a newsletter I get from Jennifer Tsun called Eagle Watch. She wrote an amazing piece but I'm pretty sure you can't quote sources everyone doesn't have access to?

a reply to: Caver78

Quoting sources is done with the ATS bracket[ ] code,

[ex ]external content[/ex ] -- take out the spaces. Provide a link to the source using the link icon in the edit window, the one with the box and little arrow.

Hope that helps...

While still digging into this I should have been clearer in my OP.

The document came to light when two guys who are writing a book did a FOIA.

The operation, dubbed Project SITKA, was launched in early 2014 to identify key individuals “willing and capable of utilizing unlawful tactics” during Indigenous rights demonstrations, according to the RCMP report, obtained under the Access to Information Act by two researchers working on a book about state surveillance of Indigenous peoples. The intelligence report was to provide a “snapshot of individual threats associated to Aboriginal public order events” for that year.

The report, completed in 2015 by the Mounties’ National Intelligence Coordination Centre, recommended the RCMP remove Indigenous rights activism from the terrorism-extremism umbrella and instead create a new category for intelligence gathering on the issue. The report also recommended the RCMP maintain updated profiles on identified Indigenous rights activists in police databases.

“I think that this is coming out of the fallout in 2013 with the Idle No More uprising and what happened at the end of the year with Elsipogtog,” said Andy Crosby, the Ottawa-based researcher who obtained the document along with Jeffrey Monaghan, an assistant criminology professor at Carleton University. “This really had an impact on the psyche of the settler state.”

The researchers obtained the RCMP report in an Access to Information request package from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

The RCMP did not provide comment on the report as of this article’s posting.

CSIS did not respond to a request for comment.

aptn.ca...

Jeffrey Monaghan is just now beginning to do some interviews on the information gathered by Project Sitka and the ramifications of a "quasi-investigation" where no incident was responsible for such an investigation. Also questions about how information was collected in different data banks and who has access.

www.cbc.ca...