Lethbridge Police surveillance of the NDP: A new program directed against the Canadian left
Photo Credit: (Edmonton Sun / Google Images)
Written by: Daniel Xie
On July 13, 2020, it was reported that two veteran Lethbridge police officers have been temporarily demoted over unauthorized surveillance of former Alberta environment minister Shannon Phillips, along with those that she met with in order to discuss a controversial decision made by the government.
The two police officers, Sgt. Jason Carrier and Const. Keon Woronuk admitted to using their positions for personal and political reasons. They carried out their surveillance of Shannon Phillips after a new provincial park was announced in the Castle region by the former NDP government in January 2017. As well as the placing of restrictions on unregulated off-road vehicle use of the environmentally-sensitive area; said decision being very controversial among the off-road vehicle community, which both officers belonged to.
The two officers, whom sought to undermine Shannon Phillips’ political career, carried out their surveillance of her by taking pictures of her and trailing stakeholders she met with in regards to the decision and running police information checks on them. They were able to track a stakeholder to a diner and later, after losing track of the stakeholder. They then collected information about said stakeholder through using their license plate data to conduct a search on the Canadian Police Information Centre for additional information. Woronuk sent this to Carrier and an unnamed third Lethbridge police officer.
That action prompted a complaint to Calgary police by Phillips, and Wornuk and Carrier’s behavior was condemned by the rest of the Lethbridge police. Paul Manuel, the presiding officer at the hearing that enforced disciplinary action on Wornuk and Carrier in response to the attempted surveillance, condemned the actions of the men as “troubling”.
Christo Aivalis, a leftist historian associated with the NDP, would express further concerns about Wornuk and Carrier’s actions, claiming on twitter that it echoes the Ontario Police’s spying of the CCF in 1945.
A Disturbing Historical Precedence:
While this incident appears so far to be the isolated actions of Wornuk and Carrier, as Aivalis noted, it recalls a dangerous historical precedent of previous surveillance and repression carried out against the left by the Canadian government, which may perhaps re-emerge in the future if the government institutions finds the left to be a nuisance.
Historically, the Canadian government has, under the fear of a Socialist revolution, conducted surveillance against Socialist organizations and exacted political repression against anyone they thought to be guilty of fermenting revolution. Following the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, the Canadian government enacted Section 98 of the Criminal Code, which sought to crackdown on “unlawful associations” seeking to overthrow the government. Those accused of overthrowing the government would be subject to draconian punishments such as deportation, which was facilitated through the Immigration act.
In enforcing Section 98, measures that would have protected the population from being convicted under Section 98 were revoked. One such measure that was revoked was Section 133 of the Criminal Code, which had previously provided that merely pointing out defects in government or the Constitution did not equate with seditious intent. In revoking Section 133, the Canadian government created an environment of fear where simply agitating for labour rights or criticizing the government could be threatened with deportation.
Deportation rates skyrocketed during the Great Depression, with 4,025 in 1930 and over 7,000 in the following two years. This was potentially because the Canadian government viewed the economic crisis brought about by the depression as ripe for radicalism, and sought to severely punish anyone they believe to be fermenting radicalism among the unemployed.
The enactment of Section 98 in 1919 would be followed by the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1920. The RCMP was used by the Canadian government to target the Communist Party, formed in secret in 1921. In order to build a case against the Communist Party and facilitate the prosecution of its leaders, the RCMP would send an infiltrator, John Leopold, into the Communist party to report and monitor its activities. Through Leopold’s infiltration with into the Communist Party, the RCMP launched a raid on August 11 on the Communist Party’s headquarters that saw the leadership of the Communist party convicted for sedition.
Section 98 would be repealed with the defeat of Richard B. Bennett and the Conservatives in the 1935 election, and the Communist leadership that was not deported was released from prison. The RCMP still continued their monitoring of the Communist Party through the Great Depression and into the Second World War, as evident in their Security Bulletins from 1933-1945. Various reports on the Security Bulletins, for instance, revealed that the RCMP viewed the efforts of the Communist Party in the late 1930s to recruit volunteers to fight against Fascism in Spain, as seeking to build a private army to overthrow the Canadian government.
The beginning of the Cold War would see the continuation of RCMP surveillance against suspected Communists. This new wave of surveillance was kicked off in response to the documents supplied by Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko on Soviet spy operations in Canada. These revelations kicked off a wave of mass arrests at those supposedly implicated in Soviet spy operations in Canada, along with a Red Scare directed against suspected Communists.
During this time, the RCMP would, under the division of the Security Panel, screen thousands of Canadians for suspected ties to Communism. Any Canadian suspected of “moral lapse” would be denied jobs in government service or given less sensitive jobs within the government. The RCMP would also, spurred on by Canada’s own laws against homosexuality, launch a purge on homosexuals within civil service. This would lead to the creation of the “fruit machine”, a way to supposedly identify homosexual governments through supposedly scientific methods.
During the 1960s, RCMP surveillance would expand further to target movements not tied to the old Communist Party under fear of communist revolution. One such movement was the Women’s Liberation movement.
From the 1960s to the 1970s as documented by authors Christabelle Sethna and Steve Hewitt in Just Watch Us: RCMP Surveillance of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Cold War Canada, the RCMP would monitor the Women’s liberation movement in Ontario and Quebec on the pretext that Second-wave feminists were laying the groundwork for socialist revolution in Canada.
In addition, the RCMP would continue in the 1960s to use of the “fruit machine” as a means to identify and suppress homosexuals within civil service.
Even the leaders of major parties in Canada were not exempt from surveillance by the RCMP and other law enforcement. As noted above by Christo Aivalis, the Ontario Police spied on the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1945. In addition, CCF politician, and later NDP leader Tommy Douglas himself would be hounded by the RCMP in their effort to root out Communism from Canada.
For three decades starting when Douglas urged in February of 1939 for a group of labourers in downtown Ottawa to push for legislation that was beneficial to the unemployed, the RCMP shadowed Douglas, compiling a 1142 page dossier with information on his every move.
The RCMP would try to look for links between Douglas and the Communist Party of Canada when he was younger, as well as observe his interactions with the anti-Vietnam war movement in the 1960s.
Even when Douglas retired as leader of the NDP, the RCMP still wanted to keep his file open under the pretext that they did not know enough about Douglas’ political activities.
Looking to the future
While at this point, the actions of two Lethbridge policemen seems to be an isolated event, it demonstrates the power of the Canadian surveillance state, and how that can be used to intrude upon the privacy and rights of anyone suspected of having opinions that are not tolerated by the government.
While all of this may seem like it is in the past, it is quite plausible that the government could enact repressive surveillance measures to suppress the left in response to growing agitation. They have already enacted such policies earlier in 2015 at the end of Harper’s time as prime minister through Bill C-51, which allows CSIS to share information about individuals easily on the pretext of fighting terrorism. It is conceivable that, if there is a wave of leftist agitation, that the government will implement measures to suppress the left in Canada.
The coronavirus has exposed the inherent flaws within the capitalist socioeconomic system, and given the indications that what follows will be a massive economic crisis. Already, with the coronavirus, many are calling for a just transition that leaves no one behind and includes a wide range of support services for the population.
Many are also calling for the government to enact a just transition that not just ensures a smooth transition for Canadians, but provide significant aid to Indigenous and racialized communities, as well as laying the foundation for a Green New Deal to fight climate change.
The demands for wide ranging systemic change, combined with the coming economic crisis, is sure to influence progressive and leftist movements and be the cause of social upheaval in the future. It is very conceivable that the government would, rather than listen to these demands, enact draconian surveillance measures once again directed against the left in the name of national security.
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