Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has added to the federal government's list of terrorist entities the Three Percenters movement — an anti-government group with a known presence in Canada that was linked to a recent bomb plot in the U.S.
It's one of four organizations added today to the Criminal Code's list of terrorist entities in an attempt to prevent them from accessing financial support.
The Three Percenters — named after a contentious theory that only three per cent of Americans took up arms and served in George Washington's Colonial Army in the American Revolution against the British — say their main goals are to protect the right to bear arms, defend against an "overreaching government" and "push back against tyranny."
Canadian officials speaking on background said they've gathered enough evidence to add the group to the list.
In materials provided to journalists, the government cited the role played by two of the group's leaders in a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — a plan which allegedly involved detonating explosives and executing public officials by hanging them on live television.
Canadian officials also cited a case of a Three Percenters member shooting and wounding five men at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minnesota in 2015.
Three Percenters are known to have chapters in Canada.
Another ideologically motivated violent extremist group, Aryan Strikeforce, was added to the Criminal Code list of terrorist groups today.
The U.K-founded neo-Nazi group, which has contacts in Canada, aims to carry out violent activities to overthrow governments, start a race war and eradicate ethnic minorities, said officials. (more...)
Three Percenters, neo-Nazi group added to Canada's terrorist list
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