Canadian police see 'anti-petroleum' movement as security threat

Anti-petroleum environmentalists are willing to resort to violence, according to this assessment

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published 18 February 2015

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have decided to label Canada's "anti-petroleum" movement a security threat, according to a leaked intelligence assessment obtained by Greenpeace.

"There is a growing, highly organized, and well-financed anti-Canada petroleum movement that consists of peaceful activists, militants, and violent extremists who are opposed to society's reliance on fossil fuels," the report, dated Jan. 24, 2014, reads. "If violent environmental extremists engage in unlawful activity, it jeopardizes the health and safety of its participants, the general public, and the natural environment."

According to the assessment, environmentalists are "willing to resort to violence," reports The Globe and Mail. The report details activists' resistance to oil sands expansion and the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The leak comes as Canada's government has tabled Bill C-51, which would allow security agencies to collect information from suspected terrorist groups.