Poverty could trigger revolt in Canada – secret report
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has flagged populism and recession as risks to public order
FILE PHOTO. A scene from the ‘Freedom Convoy’ trucker protest against Covid-19 mandates and restrictions in Ottawa, Ontario, February 5, 2022. © Dave Chan / AFP
Canada’s economic prospects are “beyond bleak” and may cause civil unrest in the next five years, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said in a confidential report to the government in Ottawa.
Titled “Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada,” the report was obtained through a legal request by Thompson Rivers University legal scholar Matt Malone. A “heavily redacted” version was published by the National Post on Wednesday – though even that was quickly taken down from the document-sharing website Scribd.
“Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak,” with Canada’s current situation expected to “probably deteriorate further,” said the RCMP report, quoted by NP columnist Tristin Hopper.
“The coming period of recession will… accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,” the report continued, adding that many Canadians under the age of 35 “are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live.”
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To corroborate the RCMP findings, Hopper pointed to a Royal Bank of Canada analysis from December, which described housing affordability as the “worst ever.” Only the richest 25% of Canadians can even hope to buy a single-family home, while condominiums were entirely out of reach for 55.5% of the households.
Despite the dire economic conditions, the RCMP mainly blamed “misinformation,” “conspiracy theories” and “paranoia” for the fact that Canadians have become disillusioned with their government.
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“Law enforcement should expect continuing social and political polarization fueled by misinformation campaigns and an increasing mistrust for all democratic institutions,” the report said.
The RCMP did admit that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 lockdowns have done damage to both the Canadian economy and the country’s social fabric, to the point where another pandemic response is likely to be widely rejected.
However, the author’s foremost concern seems to be populists, who have allegedly capitalized on societal polarization and “conspiracy theories” to “tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements.”
Facing a protest by truckers in January 2022, over his government’s harsh Covid-19 policies, Trudeau infamously accused the demonstrators of extremism and declared a state of emergency. His government seized the bank accounts of several “Freedom Convoy” leaders and jailed others.
The nine-page RCMP report was labeled secret, for distribution only within the organization and to “decision-makers” in the federal government. It was intended to be a “scanning exercise” that would look at trends both in Canada and abroad “that could have a significant effect on the Canadian government and the RCMP.”