About 60 RCMP officers carried out attacks southwest of Quebec City on people linked to the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division.
“This is a far-right affiliated group that can be described as neo-Nazi loyalty,” RCMP Cpl. Said Charles Poirier.
Poirier said two search warrants were being carried out in the towns of Saint Ferdinand and Plessisville in what he called a “national security operation”.
Poirier said there was no threat to the general public and no arrests were expected.
“But they can come depending on what we can find. Investigators will be on the scene in a few hours,” Poirier said.
He said this was the culmination of an investigation launched in 2020.
Poirier said a command center had been set up next to the church and RCMP officials were searching a house behind the church.
An emergency team, an armored car, police dogs and police officers from the Sûreté du Québec are assisting in the search.
Third raid this year
The Atomwaffen Division is a neo-Nazi group founded in the United States in 2013. The group says it was inspired by serial killer Charles Manson and says the story will end in a racial war.
Former national security analyst Stephanie Carvin said the Atomwaffen division is one of many far-right groups operating in Canada. (CBC News)
Stephanie Carvin, a former national security analyst and associate professor at Carlton University, said this was the RCMP’s third attack on the Atomwaffen division this year.
Last month, the RCMP arrested a 19-year-old man from Windsor, Ont., For alleged links to the group.
And in March, the Ottawa RCMP attacked the home of Patrick Gordon MacDonald, a key figure in the group known as The Dark Alien.
“It really means that this movement is alive and well in Canada,” Carvin said.
She said the group is now better known as the New Socialist Order, and that such groups often change their names and reorganize, but continue to support the same far-right views.
“They want the collapse of society because, after all, the goal of these groups is to create a white ethno-state, and they see that happening only through some kind of civil war,” Carvin said.
Carvin said she was unsure why the RCMP would carry out such orders without planning to make any arrests.
“It’s hard to know exactly what they’re looking for. They can just build a case, trying to understand the network, “she said.
“But to get an order, you have to show that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals are involved in some kind of violent extremist activity,” Carvin said.
“So it’s not just a premonition. It’s not just suspicion, “she said.
“You really want to do this to persecute people who may actually be involved in violent extremist activities,” she said.
“There are a number of groups of this kind in Canada, and the increase in their presence is very worrying,” Carvin said.
Poirier said employees expect to be in both places for several hours.
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