R 272209Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9150
INFO AMCONSUL CALGARY 
AMCONSUL HALIFAX 
AMCONSUL MONTREAL 
AMCONSUL QUEBEC 
AMCONSUL TORONTO 
AMCONSUL VANCOUVER 
CIA WASHDC
DIA WASHDC
FBI WASHINGTON DC

id: 194492
date: 2/27/2009 22:09
refid: 09OTTAWA154
origin: Embassy Ottawa
classification: SECRET
destination: 09STATE13023|09TORONTO18
header:
R 272209Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9150
INFO AMCONSUL CALGARY
AMCONSUL HALIFAX
AMCONSUL MONTREAL
AMCONSUL QUEBEC
AMCONSUL TORONTO
AMCONSUL VANCOUVER
CIA WASHDC
DIA WASHDC
FBI WASHINGTON DC
----------------- header ends ----------------
S E C R E T OTTAWA 000154
DEPT FOR DS/IP/WHA AND DS/TIA/ITA
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2019
TAGS: ASEC PTER
SUBJECT: SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE -
SPRING 2009
REF: STATE 13023
Classified By: Classified By RSO Kevin F. Flanagan, reason 1.4 (d)
¶1. This Message is SECRET/NOFORN.
----------------------------
¶2. POLITICAL VIOLENCE
----------------------------
----------------------------
¶I. (SBU) DEMONSTRATIONS
----------------------------
¶A. Human rights groups, small political protest/grass
roots organizations and Canadian Aboriginal groups are prone
to carrying out demonstrations aimed at the host government
and sponsor anti-U.S. demonstrations.
i. YES - to include Aboriginal groups.
ii. YES - Peaceful demonstrations and marches occur near
the embassy on a frequent basis and involve between 20 to
100 persons. Police support including notification and
monitoring is excellent.
iii. The average size of demonstrations runs between 20 and
50 persons with marches including up to 100 on some occasions.
iv. Ongoing U.S. Foreign Policy initiatives and military
actions as well as U.S. domestic issues related to the U.S.
Canada Border have triggered Anti-American demonstrations in
the past.
¶B. Demonstrations across the country are mainly peaceful
however there have been a limited number of violent clashes
with police. The last incident involving any violence by
demonstrators occured during the POTUS visit to the North
American Leaders meeting in August of 2007 in Montebello,
Quebec.
i. No.
ii. Yes. An emotionally disturbed person walked through the
gap between two Delta Barriers at the Embassy vehicle
entrance and threw red paint across the Garage door. The
individual was subsequently arrested and charged with
criminal mischief as the damage to the garage door did not
exceed 5000.00 Canadian Dollars.
¶C. Yes. The NO-WAR coalition of various groups has
demonstrated against U.S. involvement in Iraq and
Afghanistan, including demonstrations aimed at U.S.
detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as well as the Canadian
military mission in Afghanistan.
i. Yes. The close proximity of the U.S. Embassy to the
Canadian Parliament lends itself to demonstrations and
marches.
ii. The average size of anti-government demonstrations
involve between 20-100 persons. In general, both Toronto and
Vancouver report larger numbers of demonstrators.
iii. Peaceful.
iv. No damage to U.S. Property.
-------------------------------------
II. MACRO CONFLICT CONDITIONS.
-------------------------------------
¶A. No.
¶B. N/A
¶C. N/A
¶D. N/A
----------------------------------------
III. HOST GOVERNMENT CAPABILITIES.
----------------------------------------
¶A. Yes. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and most major
city Police Services in Canada are professionally trained and
extremely sensitive and responsive to the safety and security
of U.S. facilities and personnel.
¶B. N/A
¶C. No.
¶D. Yes. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have
demonstrated their commitment to battle terrorism. However,
Canadian services do not appear to be as proactive as U.S.
law enforcement regarding terrorist cell penetration and
source development. Both agencies are supportive and
cooperative with U.S. law enforcement for the most part
although restricted by the Canadian Charter of Rights, which
is the basis for Canada's strict provacy laws.
Qis the basis for Canada's strict provacy laws.
¶E. Yes, as long as privacy regulations are enforced to the
fullest degree of the law. Timeliness on requests for
information, depending on the request, can take longer than
normal given the privacy constraints.
¶F. Yes, to include the arrest of 18 "Homegrown" terrorists
in Toronto during June of 2006, an arrest in the fall of
2007 in Montreal of a Muslim doing online facilitation for a
German terrorist cell, and the arrest in the late summer of
2006 in Toronto and Windsor of members of the LTTE. In
September of 2008, a Toronto court convicted one of the
"Toronto 18" for conspiring in the group plot. He faces a
maximum of 10 years in prison, but the court has not yet set
a date for sentencing. The remaining court proceedings for
"Toronto 18" have yet to be finalized and thus
success/failure cannot be assessed. Mohammad Momin Khawaja,
charged and found guilty of financing and facilitating
terrorism for training at a remote camp in Pakistan and
providing cash to a group of British extremists, will be
sentenced on March 12, 2009. He was also convicted of
offenses related to building a remote-control device to set
off explosions, and faces a maximum penalty of two life terms
plus 58 years, which would preclude the possibility of parole
for 10 years.
¶G. Yes
¶H. Good/Average. In general, major airports generally have
good security controls in place. Use of the no-fly list has
been added for outbound international flights, but not used
for domestic air travel. Canada has established its own "no
fly list" and has successfully stopped someone on the list
from flying.
¶I. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is
reasonably effective at ports of entry.
¶J. Canada lacks a dedicated border patrol. The RCMP and
some local police jurisdictions perform this function.
--------------------------------
¶3. INDIGENOUS TERRORISM
--------------------------------
----------------------------------------
I ANTI-AMERICAN TERRORIST GROUPS
----------------------------------------
¶A. No.
¶B. No.
¶C. No.
¶D. No.
¶E. No.
¶F. No.
¶G. N/A.
-------------------------------------------
II OTHER INDIGENOUS TERRORIST GROUPS
-------------------------------------------
¶A. No. There are no formal/named indigenous terrorist
groups located or operating in Canada.
¶B. Yes. 18 "Homegrown Terrorists" (Al-Qaida inspired) were
arrested in June of 2006 from the greater Toronto region.
These "Homegrown terrorists" are first generation Canadian
citizens, primarily of Pakistani descent, and they were
allegedly plotting to attack the CN Tower in Toronto as well
as the Parliament building in Ottawa. Eleven have been
charged, and one trial has begun. In September of 2007, a
suspected terrorist believed to be plotting attacks in
Austria was arrested by the RCMP. Native Canadian
(Aboriginal) groups have, on occasion, had confrontations
with Canadian police.
¶C. No
¶D. N/A
¶E. No
----------------------------------
¶4. TRANSNATIONAL TERRORISM
----------------------------------
--------------------------------------------- --------
¶I. (S/NF) TRANSNATIONAL TERRORIST INDICATORS
--------------------------------------------- --------
¶A. (S/NF) Yes. Almost every known Islamic extremist group
has either a presence or sympathizers in Canada such as the
Hizballah; AL-Itihad; Algerian GIA; the LTTE; Egyptian
Islamic Jihad; the Iranian MEK, AL-Qaida and the Hell's
Angels gang. Sikh extremists are also present and are under
constant scrutiny by Canadian security services as a result
Qof the suspicioun of their involvement in the 1985 Air India
bombings. All Canadian Posts have seen an increase in the
number of Visa Viper entries. Also, in August of 2006, the
RCMP arrested 4 members of the Tamil Tigers in a plot to buy
missiles from undercover FBI agents. The Tamil Tigers were
added by Canada to its list of terrorist organizations in
early 2006. Extremist groups resident in Canada primarily
operate as propaganda, financial and support cells. However,
the potential threat from these groups cannot be discounted.
Investigative activity by U.S. and Canadian services since
September of 2001 has confirmed the presence of AL-Qaeda
members and cells in Canada. In January of 2002, a suspected
Al-Qaeda trained terrorist, Al Rauf Bin Al Habib Bin Yousef
Al-Jiddi, a Canadian citizen born in Tunisia, was identified
as one of the five suicide martyrs whose photos were released
by the U.S. government in January of 2002. Al-Jiddi lived in
Montreal. U.S. law enforcement have, on occasion, identified
an individual of interest with ties to Canada, as was the
situation with Abderraouf Jdey and Mahar Arar. Arar, a
naturalized Canadian citizen from Syria, was recently cleared
by a Canadian inquiry of any wrongdoing and subsequently
awarded 10.5 million dollars (CDN) as a result of his removal
from the U.S. to Syria immediately following the events of
9/11/2001.
¶B. The organization and sympathizers are primarily
assessed as propaganda, financial, and/or support cells.
Most recently, financial support fronts for Hamas.
Operational activities have been planned in Canada in recent
years such as well-documented El-Maati probe. Another
notable example was the December 1999 arrest f convicted
terrorist Ahmed Ressam and the subsequent arrest of a number
of his accomplices. Ressam was a Montreal based terrorist
apprehended at the British Columbia/Washington state border
as he was enroute to conduct an attack in the United States.
Investigations indicate Canada-based extremists have toes to
identified or suspect terrorists overseas. The nature and
extent of the Canada-based persons involvement with these
terrorists is often unclear, but does give cause for concern.
¶C. No.
¶D. (S/NF) Yes, there are extremists who are in sympathy
with the Islamic fundamentalist organizations including
Hizballah and Al-Qaeda. Several arrests by Canadian services
were made over the last year of suspected Al-Qaeda members.
NGOs have also been determined to be in support of suspected
terrorist fund raising activities. There are Sikh extremists
in sympathy with the Sikh organization(s). The largest of
those communities, we believe, are not fully known to
security services who continue to work the targets in
question to access and re-assess that question. For example,
the Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and the Benevalence
International Fund(BIF), both listed by the U.S. as having
supported terrorism, have been active in Canada. The Tamil
LTTE is also very active in raising IS ALSO VERY ACTIVE IN
RAISING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THROUGH A VARIETY OF FRONT
GROUPS. Early last summer, the RCMP shut down the World
Tamil Organization (WTO) for supporting the LTTE.
¶E. Yes
¶F. Ottawa is an international capital with over 140
foreign Embassies to include Russia, Iran, Syria, Israel,
France, Venezuela, Cuba, China, and several others considered
by DSS as having hostile intelligence services. Surveillance
detection teams have been made aware of RSO interests of any
and all diplomatically plated vehicles exhibiing interest in
our facilities. U.S. Embassy Ottawa has reported numerous
sightings of apparently Chinese nationals photographing the
Qsightings of apparently Chinese nationals photographing the
facility and its occupants. The CI threat from third country
services and non-state actors in Canada is assessed as being
low. However, a recent reminder concerning Contact Reporting
by the RSO to the Country Team, has ellicited a mild flurry
of reporting. The reporting suggests an interest and perhaps
some probing by the Russian Embassy and is being monitored
accordingly. The RSO will host a number of defensive
briefings in the coming months to address these concerns.
While Canadamis home to a number of extremist sympathizers and
support operatives, there have been no reported incidents of
targeting of the U.S. Embassy or U.S. personnel since late
¶2002. The Canadian Government routinely investigates persons
who support Sunni extremism, as well as AL-QA'ida and Taliban
operations, and Hizballah.
¶G. The EAC believes that Canada's strict laws pertaining
to weapons in general, limits the availability of small arms.
Given the internet and U.S. gun laws however, there is a
great deal of potential for availability of explosive
components and weapons. In light of the August 2007 discovery
of home made C-4 plastic explosive and small arms ammunition
in a FEDEX box from New Jersey to Ottawa, Post cannot rule
out the possibility that other types of weapons to include
CBW and combat grade explosives could be used against U.S. or
other international targets as witnessed in recent world
events.
¶7. (SBU) Point of contact for the above is RSO Kevin F.
Flanagan,(613) 688-5262.
Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at
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