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The Toronto Star has obtained monthly intelligence reports...

Author

Windspeaker Staff

Volume

30

Issue

3

Year

2012

The Toronto Star has obtained monthly intelligence reports from Aboriginal policing that show the RCMP has been monitoring individuals and groups, including the Yinka Dene Alliance, that have been critical of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project. RCMP used “open source” information from social media to watch over “radical groups” (so labeled by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver) warning of an “increased propensity and likelihood of utilizing blockades and confrontation.” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo said spying on groups exercising their right to express their opposition to a project is a wrong-headed approach, and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said it was “deeply disturbing.” The revelation comes on the heels of another spying scandal when Aboriginal child advocate Cindy Blackstock told media that government had been spying on her after she took her cause of equitable treatment of on-reserve children in care to a human rights tribunal.