CSIS weighed whether rail blockades supporting Wet'suwet'en could be classed as terrorism

Canada's civilian spy service assessed whether First Nations land rights activists who disrupt trains should be classed as a "terrorist threat" to national security alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, according to declassified documents.

But the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) eventually decided the charge wouldn't stick after probing the issue in secret, internal studies whose findings were shared with government officials in an unclassified March 2021 counterterror briefing.

CSIS reached this conclusion through analysis of the Canadian criminal code, under which, to be considered terrorism, interference or disruption of essential services must inflict death or injury through violence, or otherwise cause serious risk to public health and safety.

"Unsophisticated acts of unlawful interference [like blockades] do not cross the terrorism threshold," the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) said in a report released through access-to-information law.

"Although these disruptive actions are damaging to the economy and to rail network operations, they have not yet amounted to acts of terrorism."

ITAC employs officials from across Canada's security and intelligence bureaucracy, and generates reports for federal leaders based on openly available and classified sources.

It's housed under CSIS, which is tasked with monitoring and reporting on potential threats to national security stemming from hostile acts of subversion, sabotage, espionage and terrorism.

Though heavily censored, the documents confirm the spy service's concerns were tied in part to the February 2020 Wet'suwet'en solidarity demonstrations, which disrupted rail corridors for weeks.

Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs oppose construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through their nation's territory in northern B.C. Following an armed RCMP raid on road blockades that were stopping construction workers from getting through, dozens of protests popped up across the country to show support.

CSIS was also worried about a standoff over a housing development in Caledonia, Ont., which Haudenosaunee activists from nearby Six Nations began occupying in July 2020 as part of a long-standing land claims dispute, dubbing it 1492 Land Back Lane. Activists mounted road blockades and shut down a CN rail line following police raids in August 2020 and October 2020, respectively.

The 247-page release begins with a November 2020 report on the unrest in Caledonia, already published by APTN News, where the service raised "notable concerns" about the camp's impact on critical infrastructure in southern Ontario.

Then on Dec. 15, 2020, CSIS's Intelligence Assessments Branch penned a classified report sparked by a decision by U.S. prosecutors to lay terror charges against two women accused of trying to sabotage trains in Washington state.

"The perpetrators had allegedly acted in support of the [2020] Wet'suwet'en pipeline protests and had links to anti-authoritarian movements that seek anarchy and advocate for civil unrest," ITAC said.

ITAC assessed, however, that "these acts unlikely constitute terrorism, or defined as such in Canadian law, and likely had more to do with vandalism against a symbol of perceived [oppression]."