OTTAWA—VICE Canada is fighting demands from Canada’s national police force to turn over all notes and communications between the news outlet and an accused terrorist.

The RCMP served VICE with a production order in February for all notes and interviews between the news outlet and Farah Mohamed Shirdon, a Calgary-born Islamic State fighter.

The demand includes any internal correspondence between reporter Ben Makuch and other VICE employees related to how to contact Islamic State members online, according to the outlet’s lawyer.

It’s exceedingly rare for national security agencies in Canada to demand news outlets turn over material, and rarer still for media organizations to find themselves in the middle of a terrorism investigation.

VICE Canada’s head of content, Patrick McGuire, said complying with the RCMP’s demands would undermine the independence of Canadian journalism from state authorities.

“Sources should be able to speak with journalists without fearing that the cops will turn around and try and request the records of those conversations,” McGuire said in an email Friday. “We are not here to assist the RCMP with their work.”

The RCMP refused to be interviewed or answer any questions for this article, although a spokesperson confirmed that they served VICE with a production order in February.

“This is part of our process to collect evidence in support of this criminal investigation,” wrote Const. Annie Delisle in an email. “However, because this is an ongoing court matter, we cannot comment on this matter at this time.”

VICE was one of the first media organizations to connect with Farah Shirdon in June 2014. Makuch, who previously worked for The Canadian Press in Ottawa, interviewed a man named Abu Usamah, believed to be an alias of the Canadian-born Shirdon.

In a later interview, Shirdon espoused typical pro-Islamic State propaganda, going on about how blood has to flow in the streets of the Western world. But Makuch reported that the man’s “bravado also made it difficult to decipher legitimate threats from hyperbole, which makes it tough to know how serious the domestic threat to Canadians really is.”

The Star’s Michelle Shephard also spoke to Shirdon over instant messenger in 2014. He told then the Star that the Islamic State’s war “has just begun.” Security sources told Shephard that Shirdon, like other foreign fighters joining the so-called caliphate, were “disenfranchised, disaffected” people that feel like “heroes” in the movement.

The RCMP famously raided the home and office of Ottawa Citizen reporter Julliet O’Neill in 2004 in an effort to find her source for reporting on the Maher Arar affair.

But attempting to ferret out journalists’ sources — at least with court orders — is a rare thing for Canada’s national security forces. Iain MacKinnon, the Toronto-based lawyer representing VICE, guessed there have been a dozen cases over the past 15 years.

MacKinnon said VICE has no interest in protecting Shirdon or making the RCMP’s investigation more difficult. Instead, MacKinnon said, the case is about ensuring journalists in Canada can protect their work — and their sources.

“People may be chilled and fearful of speaking to reporters, because they’ll start wondering is everything they say going to be just turned over to police,” MacKinnon said.

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“People like whistleblowers and others would rather speak to a journalist than a police officer. And they should be free to do that.”

Most of the records related to the case remain sealed in Ontario Superior Court. VICE is scheduled to argue its case in January 2016.

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