Possible versus Likely
It’s important to balance what is possible with what is likely – or an abundance of information can spiral us in to a place of debilitating paranoia instead of productive risk assessment.
Part of doing so is having a dynamic/flexible assessment of risk within your self, your crews, and community as a whole. Our political environment and it’s history is an important part of reducing what is possible (overwhelming) to what is likely.
If you’re organizing politcally in Hamilton – or anywhere – the police are looking at you; it’s just a matter of how deeply.
As far as we know, Hamilton police didn’t just begin their surveillance of individuals by applying tracking devices to their vehicles or starting a two year undercover operation. Nor is it likely that they applied tracking devices to every activist (or anarchist’s) vehicle involved in attending Wet’suweten solidarity events. Police efforts came in the context of mostly failed or incomplete attempts to surveil, infiltrate and disrupt in other ways – combined with a continued and active escalation of momentum and tactics. Additionally, there are moments in time where it seems likely that there was an influx in federal budget dollars to provincial and municipal policing related to the tracking of anti-pipeline and Indigenous solidarity disruptions.
None of this is to say that you aren’t being surveilled for your participation in organizing or mobilizing – or even commentary in groups or on event pages. You most certainly are to some extent because the nature of surveillance is to always expand outwards. However: If you’re just getting in to organizing in this city you probably don’t have to search your vehicle for a tracking device.
Hopefully reading through this site may help give you a better assessment of what you can expect, how you can organize & mobilize more securely, and what you might want to be cognizant of in terms of what is definitely possible.
Summary of Section
Click headings to see individual reports under the “surveillance & infiltration reports” menu option at the top of side of this page.
Sam Brown
- Hamilton Police have used fake social media accounts to track organizers, groups, and events, and collect disclosure (evidence) to be used in court processes
Surveillance Around Wet’suwet’en Protests
- At least one of the individuals arrested had been under intermittent mobile surveillance for months. This involved 4 to 5 teams of plainclothes officers following that individual for entire days, documenting what they did, and retrieving video footage and receipts from stores they entered.
- Hamilton Police also sought an application under 492.1(1) – a warrant to apply an electronic tracking device to a vehicle against at least one individual. The application was filed, heard and approved within 24 hours .
- A warrant to search a person’s cellphone using Cellebrite to crack encryption was also granted
- Police obtained warrants to get information from an individuals ISP, as well as Google
When OPP Come Knocking
- OPP surveilled and approached an individual in an attempt to get inside information, knowing the names of them and family members.
Shane: an undercover cop in Hamilton
- Shane was an undercover for 2 years, beginning the summer of 2016. His goal was to infiltrate local anarchist groups, especially related to The Tower (an anarchist social space) or anti-pipeline organizing. The project was called “Project Green Tree” and some of his notes were eventually filed as disclosure against Locke Street and Pride Defendants.
Other Reports
- Hamilton Police actively monitor social media of known individuals, projects and groups
- OPP work with and outside of HPS to monitor individuals they consider to be “extremists” which, broadly, could include any known anarchists or individuals associated with Indigenous or Indigenous solidarity actions through their Intelligence Bureau (POIB)
- OPP would actively monitor and comb through social media pages and identify situations to send officers in order to covertly surveil. In one case, OPP had officers surveil someone cutting and collecting a fallen tree for firewood.
- OPP have access to a helicopter with video surveillance capabilities, which was used during enforcement and following operations to do with the Six Nations landback lane reclamation.
- As well, OPP have used a surveillance aircraft (Cessna airplane) to surveil and track situations or individuals. The aircraft has been used on occasion during the Six Nations landback lane reclamation, as well as other “organized crime” operations and enforcement instances throughout so-called ontario.