news

Police in Canada have arrested and charged four people, including active military members, who they allege were “planning to create anti-government militia” and to “forcibly take possession of land” in the province of Quebec.

The scope of material uncovered by police, including explosives and assault rifles, marks the largest weapons cache ever seized as part of terrorism investigation.

On Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged Marc-Aurèle Chabot, 24, of Quebec City, Simon Angers-Audet, 24, of Neuville, and Raphaël Lagacé, 25, of Quebec City, alleging the group took actions to facilitate terrorist activity.

“The three accused were planning to create anti-government militia. To achieve this, they took part in military-style training, as well as shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises. They also conducted a scouting operation,” the RCMP said in a statement.

A fourth individual, Matthew Forbes, 33, of Pont-Rouge, has been charged with possession of firearms, prohibited devices and explosives. The four have not yet entered pleas.

The RCMP said they conducted searches in January 2024 in the province of Quebec, where they discovered 16 explosive devices, 83 firearms, 11,000 rounds of ammunition and other military equipment – 18 months before the arrests were made. Police said the investigation was led by Quebec’s RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Team squad, with help from local police.

Other than describing the men as wanting to create an “anti-government militia”, investigators have not described the motivating ideology and nor did they reveal what the men were alleged to have identified as a target in their attempt to “forcibly take possession of land in the Québec City area”.

The RCMP also released images of handguns, assault rifles, vests and ammunition seized by officers.

“This is the largest cache of equipment and weapons and explosive devices that have ever been found in a terrorist incident, by a long shot, in Canada,” said Jessica Davis, a former intelligence analyst at Canada’s spy agency and the president of Insight Threat Intelligence, a consultancy.

“I would probably put it in one of the top caches of disrupted plots around the world, particularly in Nato countries. It’s huge and we don’t know what they were planning on doing with that – but that was a lot of military equipment and devices.”

The RCMP also posted images of an accused’s social media profile that included images “with the aim of recruiting new members to the anti-government militia”.

Davis said that over the last two decades, most of the terror attacks in Canada have been perpetrated by ideologically motivated violent extremism.

“We’re not talking about al-Qaida and Islamic State. We’re talking about anti-Muslim, ‘Incel’ or anti-government extremists. And I think that’s one of those things that Canadians don’t necessarily understand. The Islamic State makes the news, but it’s really this other type of terrorism that’s the real problem in this country.”

The four men were due to appear in a Quebec court on Tuesday. None of the charges have been tested in court.