Four Quebec City-area men arrested and charged in connection with an armed plot to create an “anti-government militia” were ordered held in police custody Tuesday until July 14, after making brief appearances in Quebec City court.
The RCMP charged three men with facilitating a terrorist activity in a plot to create an “anti-government militia” in Quebec, and a fourth man with multiple explosives and firearms charges, including weapons he allegedly acquired from the United States and France.
The plot allegedly unfolded between June 1, 2021 and Jan. 10, 2024, when the RCMP conducted several raids, seizing weapons, ammunition and other restricted military items, according to the charging documents obtained by Global News.
The charging documents allege that activities in furtherance of the terrorist plot took place in Quebec City, Montreal, Petawawa, and Rolphton, Ont.
Three of the suspects, in their 20s, sported beards as they appeared on cameras using a remote link from a nearby jail. The fourth suspect was relatively older, in his 30s.
In two separate cases featuring 23 counts of Criminal Code and Defence Production Act offences, the RCMP laid out how the men possessed guns and ammunition, smoke grenades and night vision googles to further their plot, which police said aimed to use violent force to take over a unidentified property in the region.
The RCMP says it conducted searches in January 2024 in Quebec City that led to the seizure of 16 explosive devices, 83 firearms and accessories, approximately 11,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibres, nearly 130 magazines, and four pairs of night vision goggles.
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According to authorities, all four men “were allegedly involved in activities intending to forcibly take possession of land in the Québec City area” who described the case as one of “ideologically motivated violent extremism.”
“That land would become theirs and that’s how you would start a new society is have your own land and a place where to start planning,” said Staff Sgt. Camille Habel with the Quebec RCMP national security team.
The Crown said it delivered separate hard drives containing the evidence gathered during the lengthy police investigation to two of the suspects’ defence lawyers. The remaining evidence is to be disclosed to legal counsel for the other two suspects on Wednesday.
Neither the RCMP nor federal Crown prosecutor Sara Moussa would identify the specific property involved or why the men allegedly targeted it.
Some of those charged are “active members of the Canadian Armed Forces,” the RCMP said in a statement.
After a brief court session in Quebec City, prosecutor Moussa declined to say which of the four suspects were the active members.
She also declined to explain why so much time had elapsed between the police raids and seizure of ammunition and weapons on Jan. 10 2024, and the laying of charges 17 months later.
When asked why the men were being held in custody, she did not respond.
None of these allegations have been tested in court and the accused are innocent until proven guilty.
The Integrated National Security Enforcement Team says three of the men, all from Quebec, allegedly took steps to facilitate terrorist activity and are each facing one charge of facilitating terrorist activity.
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According to the RCMP, these individuals charged are:
- Marc-Aurèle Chabot, 24, of Quebec City
- Simon Angers-Audet, 24, of Neuville
- Raphaël Lagacé, 25, of Quebec City
Those three face sentences of up to 14 years in prison, if found guilty.
These three men took part in military-style training, police say, as well as shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises. They also allegedly conducted a scouting operation, police alleged.
Police seized a variety of firearms, including some that are prohibited, as well as high-capacity magazines and tactical equipment allegedly used in these activities, an RCMP press release said.
The fourth suspect was identified as Matthew Forbes, 33, of Pont Rouge, Que., who faces 11 counts involving firearms, prohibited devices and explosives, and possession of weapons charges, including possession of a 9mm Glock pistol without owning a proper gun licence. He is not facing a terrorism charge.
Forbes is also listed as president of a Quebec registered corporation called Northern Tactical Defence Inc., based at his Pont-Rouge home. It was created in September 2023, Quebec corporate records show.
Habel said an Instagram account was allegedly used for recruitment, with the recruiting specifically targeting people that “either had an interest or knowledge about firearms.”
Phil Gurski, a former senior strategic counterterrorism analyst at CSIS, said social media has become an “echo chamber” that will expose you to various information.
“You will find voices that are the same as yours and we also know that algorithms, if you’re interested in topic X, AI-driven algorithms will point you in that direction and they’ll expose you to more stuff,” he said.
“In some cases, more serious and more violent stuff. That complicates things from a number of perspectives.”
Monitoring that is difficult, he said, also noting the challenges of disinformation and the difficulty of discerning what is accurate.
“It’s getting harder and harder for the average person to distinguish misinformation, disinformation and inaccurate reporting,” he said.
The Department of National Defence said two of the four men charged were members of the Canadian Armed Forces but initially declined to say which men were government military employees.
“The Canadian Armed Forces are aware of the arrest of and laying of charges against four individuals, including two active members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who were allegedly involved in violent extremism,” a statement said, adding that the armed forces were “taking these allegations very seriously,” and had “fully participated in the investigation led by the RCMP.”
Late last night, however, Brig.-Gen. Vanessa Hanrahan, the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, confirmed to Global News that the accused currently serving in the Canadian Army were Cpl. Marc-Aurèle Chabot and Cpl. Matthew Forbes of CFB Valcartier, a Quebec City military base.
“CAF members are prohibited from participating in an activity, or being a member of a group or organization, that relates to hate related criminal activities, and/or promotes hatred, violence, discrimination, or harassment,” Hanrahan said.
The other two suspects include a former Candian Forces member and one former civilian instructor with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, Hanrahan added.
“The Military Police and the Canadian Army continue to support the ongoing investigation led by the RCMP and no further details can be released,” the Brig.-Gen. added.
However, the RCMP told media in Quebec the investigation was over and no further arrests are expected.
Other charges have also been laid for offences related to possession of prohibited devices, transfer of firearms and ammunition, careless storage of firearms, possession of explosives and possession of controlled items.
Gurski noted there’s also questions of if the men who are active military members may have been radicalized before or after they joined the Canadian Armed Forces.
“If it was before, that’s a vetting problem — they should have been caught before,” he said. “If it happened after, that introduces a whole other set of problems. Where were they radicalized? By whom were they radicalized, are there other members of the Canadian military who are radicalized or is it something completely separate from the Canadian Armed Forces?”
Active military members involved in extremism not new: report
Concerns about current and former military members being involved in extremist activities are not new.
A declassified Canadian intelligence report in 2021 showed far-right extremist groups are “actively recruiting” past and present members of the military and police.
The report cited 17 examples in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Germany and New Zealand which “illustrate the intersections and relationships between ideologically motivated violent extremism and uniformed personnel.”
Six of the cases cited in that report involved members of the Canadian military or reserves.
“IMV extremist groups actively recruiting uniformed personnel,” the Canadian government threat assessment said.
IMV is the acronym for ideologically motivated violence. Federal security officials say the term describes a broad range of grievances “that transcend the traditional left–right ideological spectrum.”
CSIS describes the categories of violence included in that definition as xenophobic violence, anti-authority violence and gender-driven violence, as well as cases motivated by other forms of ideological motivations and grievances.
“Several xenophobic and anti-government/anti-authority violent extremist groups openly recruit current and former military and law enforcement personnel,” that 2021 report warned.
The report said the groups included the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Boogaloo Movement, as well as the Three Percenters. The Three Percenters are a listed terrorist entity in Canada, as are the Proud Boys.
David Hofmann, a professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick who studies far-right extremism and violence, told Global News on Tuesday that there’s no “simple formula” to extremism.
“In the case of militia movements like this, they tend to have anti-government sentiments,” he said. “They tend to have certain common elements. I don’t want to say this is exactly what this particular militia movement believes in, but I mentioned again the term accelerationism, when militia movements plan an attack, it’s usually aimed at sparking some sort of wider conflict.”
The RCMP’s report on Tuesday did not say if the men arrested had any involvement with such groups, nor if they were recruited, but said the force remains committed to fighting ideologically motivated violent extremism.
It went on to encourage people with information on illegal activities of individuals or groups of individuals to contact the RCMP by phone, online or their local police department.
—with files from Global News’ Stewart Bell and Touria Izri
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