Getting access to RCMP ‘Native extremism’ files took 4-year fight – CBC

Mar 27, 2026

‘National security’ cited in 42-month delay by Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) told CBC Indigenous it would need nearly four years to consult on a request to see 50-year old secret records from an RCMP program that spied on so-called “Native extremism.”

“Consultations with [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] are necessary to ensure that LAC does not inadvertently disclose sensitive information that is exempted from disclosure, including information that could pose real dangers to national security,” Crown lawyers wrote in a court brief in 2024.

The fight began in 2022 when CBC Indigenous reporter Brett Forester used Access To Information (ATIP) to ask to see a file created by the RCMP Security Service, which monitored hundreds of Indigenous people during the 1970s, stored at the archives.