Security experts warn extremist elements in blockade ’emboldened’ by Alberta government’s response
Global News
“If the government of Alberta thinks that the protest is over and the threat is gone, then they're more naive than I even thought.”
A security expert who has been keeping an eye on protests and extremism in Alberta for more than a decade is raising the alarm on an apparent lack of action from the provincial government.
His comments follow an RCMP seizure of a weapons cache at the Coutts border blockade earlier this week that resulted in charges including conspiracy to murder, and the beginning of dismantling of the Coutts border blockade as a means to distance itself from those arrested.
“If the government of Alberta thinks that the protest is over and the threat is gone, then they’re more naive than I even thought,” Neil LeMay, a senior consultant with Global Enterprise Security Risk Management, said.
LeMay said the government’s repeating of claims the protests were over pandemic-related mandates was “dangerously naive.”
“That’s just a smokescreen, and the fact that the government has bought into that and repeats that over and over again is troubling for me because it suggests that they really don’t understand what’s going on here in the province.”
Thirteen people taking part in the Coutts blockade were arrested and charged with weapons and mischief charges – with four of them facing conspiracy to murder charges – after an early morning raid revealed numerous long guns, handguns, high-capacity magazines, ammunition and body armour. Some of that body armour was adorned with symbols associated with far-right groups.
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