The RCMP arrested four people, including active members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who were allegedly involved in activities intending to forcibly take possession of land in the Québec City area.Supplied
National Defence Minister David McGuinty says extremism is not a problem unique to the Canadian Armed Forces in his first comments since active members of the military were arrested and charged in connection with an alleged plot to create an extremist militia.
“The question of extremism is something that’s throughout Canadian society. This is not something that is unknown to armed forces around the world,” Mr. McGuinty said in comments to reporters after a change-of-command ceremony in Ottawa Thursday.
He spoke two days after the RCMP arrested four men, including two active members of the Forces, alleging that they diverted items from the military in hopes of using them to create an extremist militia and take over a plot of land north of Quebec City.
Soldiers accused in Quebec extremist plot allegedly had night-vision gear prohibited for civilians
The Defence Minister, who took the helm in March, said he finds the case “deeply concerning” but said he couldn’t comment on whether the extremism suspects represent an anomaly in the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I’m not in a position to answer that question, because I’m not in a position to divine what the situation is across the entire Canadian Armed Forces,” he said.
“We reject completely this kind of behaviour, these beliefs, this system, these activities.”
The Forces are set to receive a historic infusion of tax dollars after Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged at a NATO summit last month to raise military spending to 5 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. In terms of core military spending it means adding upward of $50-billion to per-year defence expenditures − the biggest increase in more than 70 years.
Inside the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, the minister disputed the suggestion that the extremism suspects felt at home in Canada’s armed forces. “I don’t know whether these people felt at home in the military. And I don’t know if you do either.”
Mr. McGuinty said there’s already been major advances as the result of past inquiries including by former Supreme Court Justice Morris Fish and former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour. A large part of these probes, however, focused on sexual misconduct; with one of them examining the military justice system and military policing.
“We’ve made major progress in culture change in the Canadian Armed Forces − major, major,” the Defence Minister said.
Asked if he was concerned that there may be militia elements embedded in the Canadian Armed Forces today, the minister said he couldn’t comment. “I think that there are lessons to be learned throughout all of the commissions of inquiry that have been conducted.”
Mr. McGuinty, however, said officials are looking at what else can be done.
“I’ve got a whole unit now that’s spending time looking at the follow-up on Mr. Justice Fish’s recommendations, Madam Justice Arbour’s recommendations, to see whether we’ve sufficiently implemented,” he said. “We’re making progress on that. We’ll have more to say about that.”
He pointed out that the Armed Forces has extended probationary period for recruits as part of its effort to review new hires.
“At the front end of the recruitment process for the Canadian Armed Forces, there is now a probationary period which extends beyond the nine weeks of basic training,” Mr. McGuinty said. “It extends, in fact, until the new member of the Canadian Armed Forces commences their new responsibilities.”
The minster said the arrests are disturbing but as the matter is now in the hands of the RCMP and Crown prosecutors, he would rather focus on the benefits the Canadian Armed Forces are delivering.
“I want to focus on the positive. Today, we have members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are airlifting individuals out of a very treacherous situation involving wildfires,” he said, adding that he just returned from the Baltic country of Latvia where Canada leads a recently scaled-up NATO multinational brigade.