File under: “Canada, I barely recognize you anymore.”

Ottawa’s new anti-terrorism strategy lists eco-extremists as threats

“After vowing to take on radical environmentalists determined to stop the Northern Gateway pipeline, the Harper government has released a new anti-terrorism strategy that targets eco-extremists as threats…With his announcement this week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has increased the concern among environmentalists that Ottawa regards them as implacable adversaries to be monitored and battled, rather than well-meaning advocates to be consulted. ‘This is just one more step in their attempt to marginalize the environmental movement and to quiet its voice,’ John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said Friday. ‘It’s an indirect suggestion that somehow environmentalism is attached to terrorism and that’s just wrong.’…New Democratic Party MP Megan Leslie said the new strategy should be seen in the context of the government’s effort to demonize the environmental movement and aboriginal groups that are opposed to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.”

More than ever, we’re becoming a mirror of the United States and their culture of fear and oppression - recommended reading: Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, by Will Potter. “At a time when everyone is going green, most people are unaware that the FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists…Like the Red Scare, this “Green Scare” is about fear and intimidation, and Will Potter outlines the political, legal, and public relations strategies that threaten even acts of nonviolent civil disobedience with the label of ‘eco-terrorism.’”

(Source: The Globe and Mail)