Why an ex-national chief wants to sue Canada over its secret Indigenous spying program

Ovide Mercredi is many things, but a terrorist isn't 1 of them.

A attorney, poet and fellow member of the dictate of Canada, he's an complete Cree leader who spent two terms leading the Assembly of First Nations in the 1990s. And yet, sitting inside his Winnipeg living room flipping through a hefty stack of formerly secret intelligence files, Mercredi is compelled to set the record straight.

"I don't appreciate being called an extreme Native," the former national chief says emphatically, "because I'm not a terrorist."

Yet there he is, in black and white — named in a secret 1997 domestic counterterrorism report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which lists Mercredi's call for a national day of protest against federal policy inaction as "Native extremism."

The ensuing pages, though heavily censored, outline the CSIS counterterrorism branch's priorities at that time, confirming Canada's spy agency saw Indigenous peoples' "unresolved grievances" as potential breeding grounds for extremist violence as late as 1999.

According to CSIS in the document, Indigenous concerns about "land claims, resource development, fishing rights, self-government, taxation, policing and health care" had created "conditions ripe for confrontation of varying levels of intensity and violence."

In an exclusive interview, the former national chief says this language conjures up state-sanctioned racial stereotyping that the Indigenous rights movement is dangerous and threatening, which could dissuade people from standing up for their rights.

"This story is just beginning; I don't think this is the end of the story," he says.

"And I'm going to hold the government accountable, myself, as an individual. I'm taking legal action."

How RCMP spies infiltrated the 1970s Indigenous rights movement

The RCMP, the spy and the betrayal of national chief George Manuel

After reviewing 6,000 pages of once-secret dossiers compiled by the RCMP Security Service, Canada's Cold War-era domestic intelligence agency, a team of reporters found the Mounties used paid informers, infiltration, wiretaps and physical surveillance to penetrate legitimate Indigenous organizations in the 1970s. 

The documents reveal Mounties were casually spying on Indigenous politicians as early as 1968, but intensified the probe in 1973 in response to the radicalism of the Red Power activist movement. 

Soon, the RCMP was infiltrating legitimate organizations like the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) and the Dene Nation, while keeping respected leaders under surveillance. 

These revelations are prompting more targets to speak out.

"It just validated and proves what I knew all along," says Cree leader Sol Sanderson, who worked with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians (FSI), now the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sanderson has maintained for decades that the Mounties used dirty tricks against the federation. In fact, documents show Mounties did spy on Sanderson along with other leaders from Saskatchewan like future national chief Noel Starblanket, but the intensity of the spying remains uncertain.

In the meantime, Sanderson echoes Mercredi's call for a lawsuit.

"I'm looking for compensation for myself and my family and those other ones that were engaged in this process of illegal activity," he says in an interview in Saskatoon.

"It damaged our history, it damaged our leadership, it damaged our livelihood. Deliberately."

University of Saskatchewan adjunct law professor Norman Zlotkin's name also surfaces in the RCMP files, including once where he interacted directly with an informer in 1975. 

"I feel that's a very great violation of my rights and what should be expected of a democratic government in a democratic country," he says by phone.

Zlotkin is particularly concerned to see intelligence reports about private political meetings at the National Indian Brotherhood, an organization he was involved with in various ways from 1970 to 1981.

Why CSIS started spying on Indigenous leaders decades after the RCMP stopped

From that arises "a whole question of legality," he adds, particularly if any meetings where he discussed legal matters with clients were spied on.

"But the more I think about it, the more I think generally that these were illegal activities," he says. 

"It's important, to move on, for government to admit that they were illegal and, at the minimum, to apologize."

Ultimately, by 1978, having found no evidence of subversive activity, senior Mounties in Ottawa dialled back the program, calling the situation "not volatile enough to warrant extensive coverage or deployment of 'heavy' investigative techniques."

However, the monitoring continued with "foreign involvement" in legitimate Indigenous affairs as the stated focus in 1979. The RCMP Security Service was also facing a public inquiry after being caught using dirty tricks against the separatist movement in Quebec.

It was also in 1979 that First Nations leaders like Sanderson began urging that public inquiry, the McDonald Commission, to investigate whether Mounties used similar tactics against the Indigenous movement, but their allegations were dismissed.

"We were ignored," recalls Zlotkin, who wrote the NIB's legal brief to the commission, "and now this is coming home to roost for the government."

Why Mounties paid 5 informers to spy on Dene leaders: Inside a secret surveillance operation

RCMP commissioner regrets Indigenous spying program that spanned over a decade

Sanderson has a similar recollection, but now he wants the subject revisited. 

"That investigation that I called for 20 years ago is long overdue," he says.

The McDonald Commission sparked the 1984 creation of CSIS, which soon became as concerned as its forerunner about a rising wave of Indigenous resistance. Old habits returned, and a protest in Labrador would push things over the edge.

In December 1988, a CSIS officer visited Goose Bay amid protests by local Innu First Nations against the NATO military alliance, which was conducting ear-splitting, low-level fighter pilot training over their hunting grounds.

Two days later, CSIS officials in Ottawa "approved a nation-wide investigation into 'Native extremism,'" officially reviving Canada's Indigenous surveillance program.

That investigation would grow in both intensity and intrusiveness after the armed standoff at Kanehsatà:ke, better known as the Oka Crisis of 1990, expanding to cover not just warrior movements but "Aboriginal issues" in general.

How investigating Indigenous activists became a CSIS priority for at least a decade

CSIS 'actively' investigated Ipperwash land dispute before fatal shooting of Dudley George, documents show

By 1997, when Mercredi's call for a day of protest appeared in CSIS's domestic counterterrorism files, the service seemed to think any protest, anywhere, at any time, could turn violent. 

One document says CSIS had a "network of directed sources [informers], protected contacts and police liaison" in place. It was like 1975 all over again.

Mercredi says he feels betrayed by the country. He wants to know who had access to the reports, what's behind the redactions, and who in government authorized the surveillance. His message to the federal government and its political leaders is blunt.

"We're going to hold you accountable for not just violating our privacy, but portraying our movement as terrorism, as extreme, and maintaining that image," he says.

"Every time we stand up for our land rights, you're there to report on us. And then when you're asked to share the report with us, this is what you give us," he continues, pointing to a fully blacked-out page.

"Redacted information. That's not only unfair but that's evil, in my opinion."

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree's office declined an interview request for this story, citing a past statement that the government takes these matters seriously and will work with Indigenous leaders to ensure transparency and accountability.

The RCMP issued a statement of regret in March, and Prime Minister Mark Carney said there should be an apology. CSIS said it no longer engages in race-based intelligence investigations and is committed to mending relations.

As for Mercredi, he said he'll believe it when he sees what's beneath the black ink.

Reporter

---

---