Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers are carrying out an operation in Quebec on Thursday in connection with individuals potentially associated with a neo-Nazi terrorist group.
RCMP said on Twitter that their investigation is targeting people allegedly linked to Division Atomwaffen, which is federally listed as a terrorist group.
Photos released by the police force Thursday noon show heavily armed officers outside several buildings, including one that appears to be a church.
Research is underway in Saint-Ferdinand and Plessisville, in Centre-du-Québec. In an interview, Sergeant of the RCMP in Quebec Charles Poirier indicated that there was no risk for the population, but that a tactical intervention group was deployed because of the “nature of the group” targeted.
According to the federal Department of Public Safety, the Atomwaffen Division was founded in 2013, in the United States, and has since taken root elsewhere in the world, including in Canada. It was put on the list of groups monitored by the federal government last year.
“Hate camps”
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the group, also known as the National Socialist Order (ONS), calls for violence against racial, ethnic and religious groups, as well as informants, police and bureaucrats, so as to “cause the collapse of society”.
This group has previously held training camps, also known as “hate camps”, and some of its members have carried out violent acts at public rallies, including one in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
Last month, a 19-year-old man from Windsor, Ont., was charged with terrorism for allegedly filling out an online application to join the Atomwaffen Division.
Sergeant Poirier said Thursday’s operation was part of the RCMP’s National Security Criminal Investigations Program, but he wasn’t sure if it was related to last month’s arrest in Ontario.