Two recent events in the U.S. and in Canada have clearly illustrated the growth of insurgent groups: the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the three week occupation by a Trucker Convoy in Ottawa, Canada, in February of this year. In both cases, various groups, including radical right extremists, proclaimed openly their intention to overthrow the current governments and forcibly replace them with another regime of some sort. What these two events clearly illustrated is that these groups have become well organized, funded and are led openly by radicalized leaders. What is even more clearly evident is that the insurgents are still operating despite many of their leaders and members having been arrested and imprisoned following the above two events.
What is common between the American and Canadian movements is that they are continuing to recruit, especially among ex-military and police veterans. Several veterans played a significant role in Canada, attempting to garner support and credibility among the public for their causes. In addition, these individuals bring training and military/law enforcement experience to the movements, as well as contributing intelligence for a movement. The next inevitable stage is one that leads to the formulation of an armed quasi-militia capable of carrying out a few isolated attacks. Weapons and explosives were seized in the Capitol attack and at the unlawful Coutts, Alberta, border blockade, with subsequent charges being laid in each case. Four persons arrested with weapons in Alberta were tied to Canada’s Diagolon far-right extremist militia group, well known to the authorities. In January 2021, a 22-year-old Canadian man crossed the border into Detroit where the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “tactical terrorism response team” found an assault rifle and two other guns, plus extremist white-supremacy material on his cellphone. Connections among American and Canadian white-supremacy groups have been well documented, a number of whom are hoping to promote race and civil wars.
These movements are allowed to grow until you have more open insurgency, when you start to have a series of consistent attacks, and it becomes impossible to ignore. What is clearly evident is that potential insurgencies tend to be much more decentralized, often fought by multiple groups. There is not one overall governing group within both countries. Leadership can most often extend to more local community levels, making recruitment a lot easier and training and planning a lot more difficult for authorities to monitor. Cases of violent activity are deemed to be isolated cases by local authorities and even ignored, often by law enforcement. However, when one adds up such events involving threatening protests, one cannot help but conclude that they represent a much larger campaign, organized and funded by extremists.
There will be those who will claim that alluding to insurgency movements is no more than another form of fearmongering. However, such arguments cannot explain away that certain groups believe that democracies are backsliding. There’s a clear sense that they firmly believe that governments are not that legitimate. These are angry people who are unhappy with governments and open to being exploited by insurgent groups. Unfortunately, some more ‘populist’ politicians, ala Donald Trump, have taken advantage of the situation for political gain. Some observers claim that this is what is happening inside the Republican Party in the U.S. and among certain leadership hopefuls within the national Conservative Party and in the Peoples Party in Canada. Unfortunately, appearing publicly alongside or among members of extremist groups can only give more legitimacy to such movements in the eyes of the public at large.
One thing is for certain, democratically elected governments can no longer give a blind eye to the growth of insurgency movements in either country. Recent events have shown that such movements are openly promoting deliberate and organized attacks on our democratic institutions. If citizens and their elected officials don’t recognize the potential danger to our democracy, than they are playing a very dangerous game. We can no longer ignore the growth of these movements, both locally and nationally. To do so, is to invite even more future violent and unlawful attacks.
FROLITICKS 