Surveillance of environmental movements in Canada: critical infrastructure protection and the petro-security apparatus

Abstract

A convergence of post-9/11 security governance practices and a dependence on extractive economies has resulted in changes to the way Canadian policing agencies classify environmental movements. We detail how the category of ‘critical infrastructure protection’ (CIP) now enables surveillance of environmentalists under the banner of national security. We examine the growth of CIP as a security category, its changing character from the Cold War to the present, and the role of threat entrepreneurs. We demonstrate that CIP networks have institutionalized collaborations between national security agencies and energy corporations, creating a petro-security apparatus that aims to suppress dissent. We conclude with reflections on what surveillance regimes driven by the petro-security apparatus mean for debates about national security and social movements.

Keywords:

• Security
• surveillance
• social movements
• critical infrastructure
• policing

Notes

1. They argue this public–private character is embedded in the National Critical Infrastructure Protection Strategy in Australia as well as in the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program in the US.

2. ASIS International is in its own words the preeminent organization for security professionals. Several chapters are distributed throughout Canada. In February 2014, the Vancouver chapter of ASIS hosted a talk on Assessment for Critical Infrastructure Protection. At a conference in July 2013 in Toronto, there was a seminar entitled ‘A Critical Infrastructure Protection Model’.

3. There is also the Canadian Critical Infrastructure Information Gateway operated by Public Safety Canada, which is ‘…a collaborative, unclassified workspace for the critical infrastructure community.’

4. Canada’s Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness was part of the Department of National Defence before 9/11, but has since been incorporated into the civilian Department of Public Safety.

5. Shadowing government employees may provide the most in-depth data about work in government agencies, and how organizations change over time. However, if shadowing is not possible when dealing with agencies that do not allow researchers entry (such as some security and intelligence agencies), ATI requests present a viable means of producing textual data.

6. These campaigns can be followed by visiting holdthewall.ca, or a campaign site managed by the Council of Canadians, http://canadians.org/enbridge.