Winnipeg police warn of nihilistic violent extremism targeting children

Winnipeg police have warned against the escalating threat of online nihilistic violent extremism that targets children and youth and said officers are investigating incidents in Winnipeg.

Police said Friday online predators, who reject societal values, are intent on causing destruction or chaos rather than achieving a defined ideological objective.

“It’s happening, it is real,” Const. Claude Chancy said. “That’s why we have this whole plan process in effect. But at this point, we just cannot speak to any type of specifics in regards to investigations.”

Const. Andrea Lefort, an expert in violent extremism, said the public must understand the scale of the problem, noting the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service are aware of cases across the country.

“It’s impacting everybody globally, and many of the investigations are actually transnational, where we might have, let’s say, a victim in France and a perpetrator in Alberta, or vice versa.”

Lefort said police have made presentations this spring to heath-care professionals, first responders, educators, school support staff, community agencies, and the public.

Police are working actively with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, Children’s Hospital and city’s animal services agency. Lefort warned that police cannot halt this extremism just by arresting offenders.

She said police have carefully rolled out their messaging to prevent panic.

“It’s a conversation I think parents need to have with their kids,” she said. “It’s not outright panic, start throwing devices out the window and freaking out.”

Predators are often associated with online networks such as the Com Network, and the True Crime Community, police said. While labelled as groups, they’re often decentralized online networks and subcultures.

“We’re talking about communities that are very prevalent in the online spaces that have very little structure, if any,” Lefort said.

“So when I think about the individual who is responsible for starting (the group) 764, right, they have been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government in December of 2025, the individual responsible for starting it has been in prison for a number of years in the United States. The community is fully functional without him. Anyone can join.”

Police said predators comb through online platforms in search of children who appear vulnerable, including posts on body image, loneliness, family conflict and bullying.

Offenders infiltrate the platforms, including Snapchat, Discord, Telegram, and streaming sites such as Twitch, and video games such as Roblox and Minecraft.

Police say predators exploit victims by fabricating similar experiences and building trust. They introduce them to increasingly violent and disturbing material, including child sexual abuse material, animal torture and gore, “as part of a deliberate desensitization process,” Chancy said.

From there, predators move victims to private spaces where grooming escalates to blackmail. Children as young as pre-teen are coerced into committing harmful acts against themselves, siblings or pets. Sometimes, they are forced to livestream the abuse.

The end game, police say, is to ultimately push victims toward killing themselves or others.

In some instances, victims are turned into perpetrators.

“This is grooming, it’s coercion, it’s extortion — almost cult-like,” Lefort said. “Many of these kids, they are being forced to continue to commit some of these acts, and they can’t get out of it until there’s some type of police intervention and therapy intervention.”

Parents were advised to look for warning signs: secrecy about online activity, withdrawal from family or friends, obsessive time spent online, unexplained injuries and a sudden fascination with violence or harmful content.

“We’re talking about children who are having a complete change in their behaviour,” Lefort said. “We’re talking about an obsession with having to be online because many of them are being extorted to get back online.”

Lefort said parents should seek help early by contacting police and the Organization for the Prevention of Violence, which has specialized support for families.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection said reports from children related to this type of harm are rising sharply.

This year is on track to more than double the number of cases in 2025.

The national charity said it received 70 reports in 2025. By comparison, 41 reports were logged in 2024 and 11 reports were filed in 2023.

The centre said 75 of the reports they’ve received contain information about a child victim, and 84 per cent of those are girls, with most of them being in their teens. The youngest victim was 11.

Lefort declined to comment about proposed provincial and federal social media bans for children under 16, but acknowledged concerns about young people being exposed to harmful content online.

“I’m not sure that if people really understood some of the harms that are in so many of these online spaces, they might not be so free to think that it’s a safe place, and that includes the gaming platforms,” she said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca