Terrorism and violent extremism
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The Government of Canada uses the terms "terrorism" and "violent extremism" interchangeably from a policy perspective. However, from a criminal law perspective, only "terrorist activity" (terrorism) is currently defined under the Criminal Code. It is defined as an act or omission committed:
- In whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause
- With the intention of intimidating the public or segment thereof, with regard to its security, or to compel a government to do something or refrain from doing something
- With intent to cause serious violence to persons, property, critical infrastructure, or essential systems
Terrorist activity also includes preparatory offences in relation to this type of activity, such as attempts, counselling, threats, conspiracy, and being an accessory after the fact.
Types of terrorism and violent extremism
The Government of Canada categorizes violent extremism and terrorism into three categories:
- Religiously Motivated Violent Extremism
- Politically Motivated Violent Extremism
- Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism
Visit the Government of Canada webpage to learn more about each type of extremism, as well as the threats to Canada's National Security.
Our role
The RCMP's national security investigative teams, known as Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams and National Security Enforcement Sections, are responsible for conducting criminal investigations of terrorism and violent extremism. While the Criminal Code definition of terrorist activity forms the basis for all terrorism offences, this definition/threshold does not need to be met for the RCMP to investigate violent extremism or terrorism-related conduct. Like other offences in the Criminal Code, terrorism offences are tools that can be used to disrupt criminal threat actors. The RCMP can pursue a range of criminal offences to disrupt violent extremist and terrorist threat activity.
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