Armed forces needs to strengthen screening to weed out extremists: expert

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This article was published 09/07/2025 (261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Terror charges laid against members of the Canadian Armed Forces over an alleged plot to form an anti-government militia show the military needs to do a better job of vetting at the recruitment stage, an expert in extremism said Wednesday.

University of Alberta political science professor Andy Knight said the fact that two of the four men charged Tuesday are active members of the armed forces shows the military isn’t doing enough to screen out nefarious actors.

“We need to do something about recruitment because if people are getting into the military with this kind of extremist ideology, it means that we’re not doing a very good job of screening,” he said.

He said extremism within the forces needs to be “explored and stamped out as soon as possible” so it doesn’t fester and spread.

Describing the case as one of “ideologically motivated violent extremism,” the RCMP announced Tuesday charges against four men over an alleged plot to forcibly take possession of land in the Quebec City area.

The men charged are alleged to have posted on Instagram in an attempt to recruit new members to their group.

The details of the case have shocked and surprised many — but not Knight. He conducted research for the Department of National Defence that uncovered racist and extremist beliefs among some military members.

“We can’t have these individuals getting into the military in the first place — being part of military operations, receiving military training, receiving weapons training — only to use that against the government or against the individuals outside,” he said. “That has to be dealt with right away.”

National security researcher Jessica Davis, president of the firm Insight Threat Intelligence, said the dozens of weapons seized in the case — which include explosives, assault rifles and a large stockpile of ammunition — amount to the “single largest cache ever recovered in a terrorism incident in Canada.”

Brig.-Gen. Vanessa Hanrahan, provost marshal of the Canadian Armed Forces, identified the two active members charged as Cpl. Marc-Aurèle Chabot and Cpl. Matthew Forbes, both from CFB Valcartier.

The other two facing charges are Simon Angers-Audet and Raphaël Lagacé.

Referring to Lagacé and Angers-Audet, Hanrahan said one is a former Armed Forces member, while the other is a former civilian instructor with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. She did not specify which one is which.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

— With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2025.