Ottawa: The Canadian government has added three more groups to its list of terrorist entities threatening national security. The three groups are the Three Percenters, James Mason and Aryan Strikeforce, reports Xinhua news agency.
With Fridays additions, there are now 77 terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code. The Three Percenters is an anti-government group linked to a recent bomb plot in the US with a known presence in Canada.
The Three Percenters says its main goals are to protect the right to bear arms, defend against an “overreaching government” and “push back against tyranny”.
Earlier this month, US prosecutors obtained a conspiracy indictment against six men associated with the Three Percenters, the latest in a series of such charges arising from the January 6 riot at the Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
In materials provided to reporters, the government referenced two of the group’s leaders’ role in a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a plan which allegedly involved detonating explosives and public executions of public officials by hanging them on live television.
James Mason is said to be an American neo-Nazi activist group, accused of providing ideological and tactical instruction on how to operate a terrorist group.
Aryan Strikeforce, an ideologically motivated violent extremist group, is a UK-founded neo-Nazi group, with contacts in Canada, and it aims to carry out violent activities to overthrow governments, start a race war, and eradicate ethnic minorities, according to official information.
The three groups’ assets can now be frozen by banks and financial institutions, and it is a crime for Canadians to knowingly deal with assets of a listed entity. Anyone belonging to such a group can be blocked from entering Canada.
Under Section 83 of the Criminal Code, it is an indictable offense to collect property, “provide or invite a person to provide, or make available property or financial or other related services”, to a terrorist entity.