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The next day, an email from the head of the unit was sent out to cease the information gathering. “Who directed this?” it asked.

In the resulting flurry of emails, a senior officer explained: “A few weeks ago, an ammo shipment was blocked during a protest activity. In that instance it was a Native protest. As a result, Commander CJOC has asked for a weekly report … on potential issues with an operational impact.”

But there was a snag. As was pointed out in emails, there are only two bodies in the Canadian Forces that are “legally mandated to collect detailed intelligence on Canadian citizens within a domestic context” — and their unit wasn’t one of them. The only way they could keep an eye on those protests would be “in support of force protection.”

But the officer in charge of the unit was skeptical that the military had an interest in snooping on the movement.

“It may not be the best answer,” they wrote. “But [at this time] there is no indications of any [Canadian Forces] nexus with Idle No More protests.” Another officer backed that up.

But the objections faded away, as the email chain turned to the idea of posting additional plain-clothed officers in Whitehorse, where a training operation was taking place, for fear that there would be Idle No More protesters. It was under the guise of “force protection.”

The officers continually point out that Idle No More activists did not appear to have any knowledge of the weapons shipments, or troop activities, and that the activists remained entirely peaceful.