The RCMP monitored and compiled lists of potentially violent, politically active native Indians for inclusion in a secret “Red Power” photograph album during the 1970s, according to newly released intelligence documents.
Canada’s spy agency of the day, the RCMP Security Service, feared “armed confrontation” between the government and native activists, and threats to a pipeline running between Canada and the U.S., according to the records.
The RCMP intelligence records focus on the so-called Red Power movement in Canada. Red Power members found alliance with such U.S. groups as the National Congress of American Indians and the American Indian Movement.
During the 1970s, tension in which AIM played a prominent role permeated parts of North America’s native community, which culminated in violence at Wounded Knee, S.D. “The appearance of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and its unifying factor in the Indian community has resulted in crosscountry travel by individuals in which we maintain an interest,” says a report marked “secret” and dated April 5, 1973, titled Red Power Canada. It was distributed to RCMP division commanders across the country with a request that each division submit a list of individuals it felt should be included in a Red Power photograph album being set up.
Accompanying Security Service documents indicate that its concerns with native activism of the era were heightened “following the participation of Canadian Indians at the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C., early November 1972,” says one confidential intelligence report dated March 23. 1973.
Source: Vancouver Sun
