Public safety minister speaks after arrest of extremists accused of plotting to kill police officers in Canada border town of Coutts. Canada’s public safety minister has warned of ties between protesters occupying the country’s capital and a group of far-right extremists who were charged earlier this week in the border town of Coutts, Alberta, over an alleged plot to kill police officers. “Several of the individuals at Coutts have strong ties to a far-right extreme organization with leaders who are in Ottawa,” the minister, Marco Medicino, told reporters on Wednesday. The arrests on Monday came as police cleared a blockade at the border – one of a string of such protests mounted in support of the so-called freedom convoy occupation of Ottawa. Police seized more than a dozen handguns and rifles, a cache of ammunition and body armour. Four of the arrested men are now accused of plotting to kill a number of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and civilians. Medicino’s comments are likely to further stoke fears that extremist elements are present in a nationwide spate of unrest which began as a protest against Covid-19 health mandates but has embraced a broad range of anti-government grievances. (….) Extremist researchers Anti-Hate Canada said the symbol is the flag of a satirical country of Diagolon – and the emblem of a “neo-fascist” and militia movement of the same name. The group has not been linked to any violence, but the researchers say that a string of meetings where members have posed with firearms indicate that it is becoming “a militia network”. On the organization’s channel on the secure messaging app Telegram, members have in recent days cheered on the Coutts and Ottawa protests and shared images of prime minister Justin Trudeau’s head on a pyke.
via guardian: Ottawa protests: ‘strong ties’ between some occupiers and far-right extremists, minister says